Fate: Hammer Time
by TedTheRabbit
Summary: Shirou Emiya wanted to become a hero. That was clear to all who truly know him. For a long time though, he lacked the power to actually achieve that goal. No longer however. No longer will he lack the power, now that the Hammer of the Odinson has chosen him as new wielder. Prepare for Thunder. ShirouxMultiple, Thor-Shirou.
1. The twilight of the Last Avenger

**Twilight of the Last Avenger**

It was cold, extremely cold. The kind of cold that he had thought only the dead would be subjected to in the deepest pits of hell.

It was strange though. Just a few hours ago, he had contemplated how hot it seemed here.

But, he was so _cold_ now.

 _'Heh,'_ Thor silently mused to himself while holding his bleeding sides, trying to stem the blood loss slightly. _'I shouldn't be surprised really. I've always been told dying is quite unpleasant, and seeing that both friend and foe told me so, it must be true to some extent.'_

Thor looked around to reorient himself. A glance to the side revealed Mjolnir, his ever-loyal companion, lying next to him. He was currently kneeling in a crater, miles wide and dozens of yards deep. Freshly made by him. His strength was great, even in old age. He was a Royal Asgardian after all.

 _'But then,'_ he thought with a deep, pained sigh; _'I suppose even gods have limits, limits I have surely reached by now. I do not have very long left, Lady Death is coming for me, I can feel it.'_

He was dying, there was no doubt about it.

He should have been disturbed by that fact, protesting, sad, in denial, anything. But he wasn't. He was almost content.

He had been so tired during the past centuries, ever since his last true friend had died. Even though his powers had increased by many magnitudes, he could not summon the motivation anymore to go out and seek glory on the battlefield or by protecting the weak.

The mighty flames of justice, righteousness and drive to protect the innocent that had once burned perpetually in his chest had burned bright and long, but little more than smouldering embers remained now, and even those were about to be extinguished.

He had done his part. He had left a legacy that would instill pride in the title of 'Thunder god' forever. He had led Asgard in times of peace, war and unrest like his father and his father before him. He could go and join the others in the void. He was of no more use here, and even gods needed rest.

Thor smiled at the prospect of seeing the other again, allowing himself to reminiscent on fond memories for a few moments. Of the Man of Iron, of the noble Captain, the strong Hulk, the mighty Sorcerer, the one-eyed spy. All of them his friends, his brethren in all but blood, his comrades, and since ages past, all dead.

But cherished memories they were, for none of them had died a bad death. Quite the opposite in fact, all had died satisfied, with their goals reached. Tony and Pepper had gotten married, Steve had settled down as well with a nice partner, a civilian. Bruce and Natasha, despite many considering it weird, had gotten together and Clint's family had prospered beyond what anyone had thought possible.

In fact, he confirmed for himself, they had all had a very happy end, almost as if they were in one of those films from that one company the Man of Spiders had talked about so much. Come now, what was it again? Dirney? Didnoy? Disney?

Ah yes, Disney, a classic happy ending. Thor remembered nearly crying in joy when his friends, his family, had received their well-deserved, and hard-fought happy ending. Sometimes expected, for he knew everyone had seen it coming that Peter Quill would ask for Gamora's hand, and sometimes not at all. Who could have predicted Strange would marry the Princess of the Dark Dimension? He did not, that was certain.

The Man of Spiders himself had gotten a Disney-end as well, happily getting together with those girls, Felicia and Michelle, both of them at once. Thor distinctly remembered buying young Parker a drink for that. There had been shocked reactions by some, but Thor himself cared not for any such stigmas. Having Loki as a brother meant that one had to be accustomed to... things.

Of course, there had been some downs in their lives as well. The Civil War could have ruined many a good thing, Thanos had succeeded, although temporarily, at wiping out half of the universe, Galactus had been a foe beyond them all, and the threats that had followed after the Planeteater had somehow only grown direr.

They'd had to fight hard for their victories, but in the end, it had all been worth it. Every foe had been laid low and every obstacle overcome.

Even his brother, Loki, had come back from death, just like Heimdall and Gamora, resurrected by the Gauntlet they had pried from Thanos' dead fingers.

"Ha, Hahahaha."

Boisterous and victorious laughter overtook him at that memory, and painful as that was for his failing body, he enjoyed laughing again. He had done it so little in recent times that it sounded almost foreign to his ears. It made him wonder why he still cared about the universe at all...

'Smack!'

Thor promptly slapped himself across the face, though it felt more like one of Loki's punches due to his fading strength. It did succeed in drawing him out of his bad mood however.

He frowned, it wasn't like him to lose himself to the past so much, he was stronger than that.

Surely, it was the fault of the giant hole in his torso, Thor reasoned, nodding along with his own train of thought. Mortal wounds dulled the senses and the mental fortitude after all, it was not solely his fault that he was getting lost in nostalgia.

Thor then focused on said giant hole again and contemplated a possible solution. But it was not to be, his opponent had struck a mortal blow and even the Odinson would not walk away, not this time.

His opponent had been Lazath, a mighty, though young Celestial that had destroyed hundreds of worlds and had threatened countless more.

 _'Still, it bothers me,'_ Thor mused. _'I have fought and defeated many Celestials in my life, often without trouble at all. Why then was this one able to kill me? Its power was not greater than the In-Betweener, not greater than Galactus, it should not have been able to land a single blow on my godly form, let alone one of this magnitude.'_

He could only see one explanation; The Powers That Be had decreed it. They had wanted to get rid of him.

Thor had felt his power waning mid-battle, and had seen the Celestial's power increase suddenly, far beyond what it should have been. Something far mightier than him or the Celestial had interfered here, with the explicit purpose of killing them both.

Apparently, his role in the Universe was over. He had recognised the power signature of the being that had interfered, and he knew that being only had the best of intentions in mind. If It had decided it was his time to die, then he would die.

A grim smile now took the place of the previous happy one. He supposed it made sense that he was not needed anymore, all the major threats of this Universe had been dispelled and vanquished after all.

Galactus had found an inexhaustible energy-source in the Infinity Stones at first, and he had become Life-Bringer Galactus not long after, Mephisto and Dormammu had been permanently locked away and were close to death, or whatever equivalent awaited them, by now. The Celestials were gone, the one he just killed being the last of its wretched kind, at least as far as he knew. The Empires of Man and Alien knew peace, true peace. Asgard thrived and Loki's son would take Thor's place as king upon his death.

Even the little pests, such as the Chitauri, the Collector and his ilk, and the beast of the Negative Zone had met their end at the hands of the Universe's protectors.

Knowing that he was destined to die, while leaving a peaceful galaxy behind, eased him even more. Death did not scare him, it never had, but now he welcomed it.

As said before, his friends were dead too, despite their peaceful end. Time had killed them, the passing of the centuries too much for them to bear. One by one he had buried them, until only he was left, all alone, lonely, old and weary…

"Snap... out... of it!" He wheezed out loud, forcing the air into his ruined lungs, now really done with his newfound melancholy. He would see them all again soon after all.

Coughing once, Thor decided to focus his thoughts elsewhere. Anywhere would do, he just wanted a death worthy of his epithet, not an undignified one where he would be crying like a child.

A faint buzzing noise drew his gaze sideways again, to his loyal and powerful hammer; Mjolnir.

Truly a weapon meant for the highest of beings, having almost no limit to the amount of power that could be channelled through it, even amplifying that power in the process. Capable of generating insane amounts of power itself and then manifesting it in many different forms, of which Celestial Lightning was only the most basic.

Giving its chosen wielder the power to control the elements to a godly level, create portals to almost every place in the known universe, master every type of magic, and so much more even when not necessarily in the hands of the wielder, Mjolnir was rightly considered to be one of the greatest weapons in the Omniverse.

Capable of destroying planets, stars, even entire dimensions in one blow, Mjolnir was not a weapon for just any man to wield. Its very nature prohibited any unworthy being from lifting or even budging it.

Thor was a worthy being of course, one of the very few to ever be in existence, though admittedly not the first. He was the son of Odin and Gaia (a whole shock it was for him when he learned that Freya was not truly his mother), he was bathed in the essence of the Multiverse by Eternity himself. He had proven himself worthy time and again, often against all odds, even if it had taken a banishment by the Allfather to set him truly straight.

Despite Mjolnir's preferences for noble and generally kind-hearted beings however, it remained a fearsome weapon. Forged by the Elder Dwarves, beings that embodied Creation itself, using the mass of a dying star, Mjolnir was a weapon unimaginable. Even Thor himself felt humbled by its decision to choose him as a wielder, and also proud to call the weapon his friend and partner.

Wielding the hammer came with great responsibility however, and no small amount of attention from the cosmic beings of the Omniverse. Lady Death, Eternity, Entropy, Oblivion, the Beyonder, all of them had been hovering over him, watching his every move, some of them just watching for their own amusement, others carefully managing him, making sure he didn't abuse his power.

Their version of abuse was different from mortals of course, they cared not for what he did on the Mortal Planes. He could kill billions, be a tyrant, burn countless planets to ash and worse and they would not care. They cared only about keeping the Balance of the All, the great force that kept the Omniverse together, the essence of the One-Above-All, of God himself.

The One-Above-All was the great creator of the entire Omniverse, all that was a part of it was created by it. All places, concepts, and beings of all Universes were only extensions of its being, for the Omniverse existed in its thoughts, in its unfathomable mind.

The One-Above-All had many names; God, Allah, Azatoth, Truth, Eru Illuvatar, He-Who-Is-Above-All-Others, and many more, too many to count, for every species and every world had their own name for it. Some worlds had more than one even.

Thor had met this illustrious being, back when he had only just gotten Mjolnir back again after his banishment. When he had only just gotten back to Asgard after his punishment by the Allfather. He remembered it, as if it had happened just yesterday.

* * *

 _Thor walked across the Bifrost, Mjolnir in hand. He had returned to Asgard as a true prince, a soon to be king, rather than as the young brat he had been. His banishment to Earth was only just over. It was only eight days ago that he had saved Jotunheim, destroying the Bifrost and losing his brother in the process. His treacherous brother, Loki._

 _Thor knew his little brother hadn't been evil, but merely in a state of confusion and pain. He dearly hoped Loki would come back soon. He would be forgiven in an instant, by everyone, except maybe Lady Sif. His younger brother could just take a portal to Asgard or come right through the front gates in a spaceship, and then they'd be reunited, they'd be a family again and…_

' _No,' Thor shook his head. 'That bridge has long been burned, I fear getting Loki back will not be easy, nor will it be without casualties.'_

" _Sadly, you are correct in that assumption, my dear child." A voice suddenly said from behind him._

 _"..."_

 _Thor instantly turned around, Mjolnir lifted in front of him, ready to fight for his survival and the protection of his home. Any being able to enter Asgard and sneak up upon him without being seen, with the Bifrost still destroyed too, was guaranteed to be very powerful. He might even need his father's assistance for this._

 _After he had turned around though, he stopped moving right away, his shout for aid dying in his throat._

 _Thor blinked a couple of times, shook his head, muttered an illusion-dispelling chant and then checked again. No, he was still seeing the same thing._

 _Now before him stood an old man, wearing only faded jeans, a scruffy, black hoodie and worn-down shoes. On his hands were fingerless gloves, also black. The man had black hair, sunken eyes and terrible scarring all over the lower part of his face. His face was set in a scowl and his hands were raised in a soothing gesture._

" _Easy there my boy," The man huffed. "I am not your enemy, nor will I ever be. So why don't you lower the hammer and join me on this walk?"_

 _The man gestured to the fields at the end of the Bifrost, indicating the destination of the walk._

 _Thor was momentarily stupefied at the being's proposal, not knowing how to react. Seeing no other option available, he decided to take a page out of his younger self's book. In other words, bluster and roar, going for intimidation and provocation._

" _I KNOW NOT WHO YOU ARE, NOR DO I KNOW YOUR INTENTIONS, BUT I WILL NOT BE TALKED DOWN TO." Thor bellowed in fake, but very convincing anger, voice thundering, like the... well, the thunder. "GIVE ME YOUR IDENTITY, PURPOSE AND THE MEANS BY WHICH YOU CAME TO BE HERE, STRANGER, OR FACE MY HAMMER!"_

 _And for proper intimidation, Thor made sure to gesture threateningly towards the unknown being with said hammer._

 _The Scarred Man sighed deeply before smiling at Thor like he was a dim-witted child. "Ah, Odinson," he said, "You need not ask. Of course you know who I am. After all, we've met before. But in case you truly forgot, let me give you a reminder."_

 _The Scarred Man suddenly started to emit light from his eyes, though that was by far not the most significant thing to happen._

 _Thor staggered back. He felt an enormous amount of power coming down on him, the vast, infinite mind pressuring his own. Confronted with the insurmountable power of the being, Thor realised who stood before him._

" _One-Above-All!" Thor whispered in awe. "Creator of the Omniverse."_

" _Yes." The Being, The-One-Above-All, confirmed shortly, with a dry voice. The light died down and Thor suddenly found he could breathe easily again._

 _Taking a weary step back, Thor deduced that his chances were not very high if the being decided to fight. But perhaps he could outwit it somehow…_

" _Didn't I already tell you I am not your enemy, Odinson?" The Being's voice sounded exasperated now, as if it were used to this kind of situations and didn't like it one bit._

' _True, he did say that," Thor thought. 'But why is he here then, if not to fight…'_

" _Heavens above and below boy, not everyone wants to fight you all the time. I am simply here to talk with you." The Being reaffirmed, crossing its arm in front of it. "I am aware of what happened in recent time here on Asgard and I have come to discuss it with you, among other things."_

 _Thor lowered his hammer and gave a puzzled stare at the Being. "What concern is it of you what happened here? Why would you feel the need to come and talk? And what do you mean with 'among other things'?"_

" _I wanted to talk because of many reasons, my boy. One of them is because you look like you need a listening ear, another is to give you a warning, and the last reason is to give you an order."_

 _Thor looked suspiciously at the Being, but he eventually lowered his hammer. It could probably destroy him in an instant, but it hadn't, so he could hear it out for now._

" _Finally_ _." The God sighed, and Thor's eyebrows went up in surprise._

" _You are reading my thoughts?"_

" _I am aware of all things, including all thoughts of every being ever." The One-Above-All replied curtly. "Let us move on with the talking. Now, tell me what bothers you."_

 _Thor hesitated for only a moment, before telling the Being of his troubles and wiles. It proved a good listener and soon Thor had talked about all the things that were bothering him; His brother, who betrayed him; His father, who did not seem to care; His mother, who had sunken into grief over her youngest son. He told It about his insecurities, his doubts about kingship, everything._

 _His piece said, Thor fell silent and waited for the Being to speak._

" _It is a very difficult situation you find yourself in, my boy." It spoke slowly. "But I can tell you that you are already doing well. Your support to your family, friends and people is what will ease their heart in these times. You have all the makings of a great king and you will be able to put your burdens behind you eventually. You were destined for greatness. Take my word for it, as omniscient being."_

 _Thor gave a small smile at the words. Surely, the Creator would know best after all._

 _The smile fell away however, when he recalled the first words the Being had spoken. "When you appeared," He mumbled slowly, hesitatingly, "You said I was right in assuming Loki would cause more trouble for the Realms?"_

 _The One-Above-All looked into Thor's eyes for a moment, seemingly pondering what to say. "That is true, I'm afraid, he will cause many problems in the future. He will push you further than any other could possibly do, but he will also solve many great imbalances. Do not lose your trust in him."_

 _Seeing Thor was about to question him further, the Creator cut him off; "But that is enough for now, I have given you advice, now for the warnings."_

 _The Primordial Chaos fixed him with a stare. "You will become powerful, more powerful than you could possibly dream of, but without assistance, without people to share your burdens, without equals, you are doomed to fail. That is warning number one. The second one, more important at the moment, concerns your mortality; You will die. That is a fact. For all the power that you have, you are not eternal. Nothing is eternal, except maybe me."_

 _"Be mindful of that, young one, don't forget your impending death, as it is ever waiting for you. I have seen your end, it is clear to me even now, millennia before it will come to pass."_

 _"Herein lies my order to you. You have enormous potential and nigh-unlimited power in your future. You will be one of the Universe's greatest protectors and you will defend her well. But despite all that, your time is limited, and I have deemed it a great waste for your power to die with you."_

 _"I will strengthen the Worthiness-enchantment on your hammer, so that none but those truly worthy can wield it, and I want you, Thor Odinson, God of Thunder and Strength, to pass on Mjolnir, along with your power and abilities, after your demise."_

 _Thor could do nothing but stare. 'Is he asking of me what I think he is asking of me?' He asked himself, momentarily dumbfounded by the Being's request. It was not that he was unwilling to do what it had suggested, he simply did not know such a thing was possible. He had never even remotely considered the possibility, nor did he know of any others who had._

" _I assure you, it will be quite possible for you to do, when you've gotten a bit older." The being stated. "This is not a matter in which I want to leave you a choice, this is simply too important."_

" _I do assume you will be keeping an eye on Mjolnir after my death? To ensure none will abuse its power?" Thor inquired with some worry. "I don't think either my power or Mjolnir itself would ever stand for it of course, but you can never be too sure."_

 _His conversation partner grinned, eyes shining. "Of course I will, boy, no one but the worthiest of beings will ever possess your power or that hammer. I already have several candidates in mind. Though only for after your death of course."_

 _Thor gave a deadpan stare at the Creator. "That is... very reassuring." He grumbled, in good humour of course._

 _Seeing the Being hold out a hand, Thor, after a short moment of contemplation, handed over Mjolnir, so it could receive the Being's blessing._

 _The One-Above-All fixed a solemn stare at the hammer in its hand and Mjolnir glowed gold, reality shifting to meet the wishes of its Creator. Thor knew not what was happening, but he didn't need to know the details to be in awe of what he was seeing._

 _When the Being was done, it offered the hammer back. Thor immediately took the weapon out of its hand, momentarily feeling relieved he could still lift it. Mjolnir thrummed a bit, as if to reassure him that he was still worthy enough._

 _Thor made to thank the creator for its gift to him, only to find it had already disappeared._

 _A pity, Thor would have liked to talk to it some more, perhaps have a drinking bout and share stories about amazing battles in far-off countries._

 _Who knew what tales a being like that would have to tell?_

 _Deciding to put it behind him for now, Thor made for the main city again._

 _On his way to the gates, Thor decided not to mention the incident to anyone, except when directly asked about it. It had been somewhat of a private conversation, and the piece about Loki truly was no one's business. He feared though that many would be curious as to what had taken him so long to travel from the remnants of the Bifrost to the city. He would not lie, but he would prefer not to tell._

 _As such, he was both relieved and slightly surprised to discover that no one had noticed his absence. It didn't seem like anyone had noticed that he was gone, never mind that he had had a conversation with the creator of the Omniverse._

 _Very fortunate for him. Very fortunate_

* * *

And so, the years had passed. He had found Loki again, amidst a war his younger brother himself had instigated, on Earth itself even. Loki had been even angrier than before, driven to near madness by the poisonous words of the Mad Titan. It had pained Thor immensely to see his brother like that, to fight him once again and to see those hate filled eyes be fixed upon him.

Loki had found his way again though, during the Ragnarok debacle. A nasty business that had been. Odin gone, Loki on the throne for a few years as his father while also being honoured as a Martyr, it had all been a bit weird. Asgard had even nearly come under attack from his newfound sister Hela, but with the help of both Doctor Strange and the princess of the Dark Dimension, she had been repelled and imprisoned again before she could do much damage.

He had also met his best friends during Loki's tantrum: The Avengers, who would stick with him for the rest of their lives. Thor had made many friends in his long life, but they had been the very best of them all.

He had expanded Asgard's reach far beyond the Nine Realms, bringing peace and prosperity to countless other planets.

Life seemed good.

He never did get himself a ladyfriend though. Jane Foster had not been a good woman for him and he not a good man for her, they had both seen that eventually. He was also just too different from lady Sif for any relationship to work out between them, that had been clear from the beginning.

And besides those two, and possibly, maybe Amara, no other woman or man had ever drawn his eye in a significant way. He died an unmarried man, with only his brother's line to continue ruling Asgard.

Thor looked at his hammer. "A shortage your next wielder will have to make up for aplenty, old friend."

The hammer gave a hum, as if to agree.

Calling upon the last vestiges of his rapidly fading consciousness, Thor gathered his remaining power and all the determination that was left in his failing body. He took all his strength; his magic, Runes and otherwise; his bond to his mother Gaia; even his heritage as a royal Asgardian and Skyfather. He took all that and more and pushed it into Mjolnir, so it could be transferred to its next wielder.

It was a difficult, complicated process, but Thor possessed both the knowledge and the skill to pull it off. It would definitely cost him his life, but that was no longer an issue. He was measuring his remaining time in minutes now. Still, even after having pushed all his power into Mjolnir, he held on to life, wanting to send Mjolnir off with grace, and at least catch a glimpse of his impromptu heir.

His power, along with the power of his father and the blessing of the One-Above-All, would ensure his hammer found the right person. Anywhere in the Omniverse would be fine. Mjolnir eventually would guide its next wielder to the Greater Planes of existence.

Of course, Mjolnir would not give its next wielder all the power at once, as that would destroy all but the most powerful of beings. The power would come gradually to them, step by step, until they had everything.

That left the matter of corruption though. 'Power corrupts' was a known saying, and...

A thrum came from Mjolnir, making Thor look down at it.

"You believe your next wielder would not abuse your power, even if you gave it to them all at once?" Thor asked. "Well, they still would not be able to handle all of it. Remember to be careful, old friend."

The Great Skyfather took a deep breath, and spoke once more the enchantment that was carved into Mjolnir's side:

" _Whosoever lifts this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the Power of Thor."_

With those words, words that shook Reality, Thor drew back his arm, took one last wheezing breath, and then threw his weapon away into the void, for the very last time, making it shoot off at several times the speed of light. It was a perfect throw, for Thor would accept nothing less in his goodbye to his companion.

It was with sad eyes that Thor saw it fly, off to new adventures, without him. But beneath that sadness, there was satisfaction as well, with a life well lived. He had given his very best, always. He would soon see his family again and Mjolnir would soon be upon its new wielder.

Exhausted, Thor felt the urge to lay down, to accept the eternal sleep. He stubbornly clung to life though, because, as stated before, he wanted to see the one who would follow in his footsteps for himself.

As Mjolnir progressed through Universes, Dimensions and Realms, Thor watched in anticipation for his heir. He watched as Mjolnir passed by several potentially worthy beings, each one increasing his curiosity, for who would Mjolnir choose?

At last though, Mjolnir set course for one planet in particular. It was hardly surprising for Thor that it was a version of Earth. Everything seemed to be centered on that planet. Maybe that was the reason it had been named Midgard by the Earliest Asgardians, for it surely found itself in the midst of things more often than not.

Mjolnir descended further and further, to the point where Thor could see the country it was fixed upon.

A lifted eyebrow indicated his surprise, as he had never been to that country before, and neither had Mjolnir, to the best of his knowledge.

What, or better said, who, was Mjolnir looking for there?

As Mjolnir came within miles of its intended destination though, Thor's eyes suddenly widened in both shock and understanding. And as the hammer came down in front of the worthy person, Thor smiled for the very last time.

"Now I understand. Mjolnir, my old friend, that is truly an excellent choice."

With those words said, Thor Odinson, last of The Avengers, died.

* * *

Thor's death did not go unnoticed. Everywhere in the Omniverse, his passing was felt by sufficiently powerful beings. The sudden distinct lack of the Odinson glaringly visible on the picture of reality.

Among them was one of the most powerful beings in existence. He was second only to the One-Above-All and shared that second position with just one other being. This being had many names and many forms to call his own.

At the moment, he was in the form of a young human male, with slightly tanned skin, a completely white outfit, short black curly hair and a seemingly perpetual grin on his face.

Said grin disappeared though, when he felt Thor's passing. He had expected it, known of it, but it still hurt to have it happen so suddenly. Thor had been a good friend for the few thousand years he had lived, but it seemed it was over now.

The being had lost more friends over in its life than anyone could possibly imagine, yet every death still hurt, especially when it was from particularly interesting people. Thor had been among the most fascinating beings it had ever met, and it couldn't help but mourn his passing, even though it was only natural.

Perhaps it was caused by the being's nature as an avatar of Chaos, but it just didn't possess the rationality to just look past the passing of a friend, no matter its... advanced age.

Now the being was one friend short.

…

Maybe Thor's heir could be a friend as well? To fill up the gap that had been left?

He knew that Thor had passed his power on to an heir, chosen by Mjolnir.

He had completely agreed with the idea of Thor passing on his power, not only because his Boss had ordered it, but also because he himself truly agreed with the sentiment. As such, the least he could do was make an effort to, ever so slightly, help Thor's successor on his way.

His gaze followed Mjolnir's journey though the Verses, right until it arrived at its final destination, and, just like Thor, he watched in understanding as the hammer descended.

"Interesting choice, Mjolnir." He murmured, "Yes, that one has potential, I look forward to seeing what will come of this."

The being quickly made his way over to that Earth, located in the so-called 'NasuVerse.' Named after the Watcher in charge of observing and cataloguing all information about said Verse; The young Nasu.

The being knew what laid in the near future. He did not doubt many powerful existences would soon come knocking, hoping to claim the Power of Thor for themselves.

To prevent this, he immediately put both a shield and a warning over Mjolnir's new wielder. The shield was there to hide Thor's heir, while the warning made it clear that said heir was under his protection now.

 **"If anyone wants to claim Mjolnir and the power of Thor, they can come now and fight me!"** He declared to the Omniverse at large, in a voice that was not sound, but pure intent projected everywhere. Right after, he felt all threats retreat as fast as they could, as was wise of them to do. He was not one to be trifled with after all.

In fact, only the boss could possibly seriously threaten him, though perhaps his brother had a chance as well. Perhaps he could hope said brother had not noticed...

'BROTHER!"

The being flinched at the sudden call. It seemed his brother had noticed his actions, despite his fervent hopes for the opposite. No doubt that grouch wanted an explanation now.

Seeing there was no reason to put it off, he decided to go indulge his brother.

"This is going to be fun to explain." He sighed sarcastically, before disappearing, not a trace left behind.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **Well, my first chapter of my first fanfic. That was really fun to write, and I hope it is fun to read as well. I am aware that it was a bit rushed and fast-paced, but I wanted to wrap up Thor's death and everything around it within one reasonably short chapter, so there.**

 **Mjolnir has been sent off, containing both its own power and Thor's. Its new owner will as such not only have access to Mjolnir's power, but also to the powers and abilities of Comic-Thor. This will be one powerful individual. (As if you all don't know who it is because of the summary).**

 **As you might have noticed, both Thor and Mjolnir received quite the buff and power boost in my story. This was on purpose, and every bit of power mentioned and more is going to the main character of this fic. Not right away of course, that would make for a boring story. It will slowly develop over the course of the plotline.**

 **I warn you here and now that I am no fan of drama or tragedy, if that's what you are looking for, either turn back or abandon all hope when ye enter here.**

 **Alright, that was it. Thanks for reading and until next time.**

 **Edited later for better flow and better choice of words.**


	2. Journey of a Hammer

**Journey of a Hammer**

Mjolnir sorrowfully flew from Thor's hand, off to new adventures and a new wielder. It had been through many great adventures with the Odinson, but that time had now come to an end. The legendary heroes of the Marvelverse had fallen, with only a few stragglers that would last a couple of years longer than the rest.

Thor had truly been an amazing protector of not only the Nine Realms, but also so many other worlds and even entire dimensions. Often crossing over to defeat interdimensional threats that could not be handled by the inhabitants of said dimensions themselves. His loss was a heavy blow to the Omniverse at large; yet another reason for Mjolnir to choose a new wielder as soon as possible.

It was aware that Thor wanted to see this new wielder before his death, so it made great haste towards its destination. Fortunately, it already knew who to choose, the blessing of the One-Above-All guiding it towards the worthiest person available in the Omniverse.

Mjolnir was a unique weapon. If one were to look at it, they would see a block of metallic material, about as large as a football, in a simple prismatic form. The handle strangely short, many would say too short for it to be effective on the battlefield. A leather strap, approximately the length of the handle itself, hung from the end of the grip.

It seemed nothing more than an oversized tool, to be used to hammer nails into wood, but nothing could be less true.

Mjolnir was made from the entire mass of a dying star, compressed by arcane arts. Its creators were the First Dwarves, beings directly in service to the One-Above all, embodiments of creation itself. as a conduit for Odin's great powers. Though, this trait had been what led Odin to seal Mother Tempest in it, as she proved herself to be nigh-impossible to kill. The One Above All had augmented said trait even further, allowing Mjolnir to safely channel unfathomable levels of energy in various forms, and even gain sentience.

All of this made Mjolnir a weapon with few equals and fewer superiors. Only weapons like the Ultimate Nullifier, the Infinity Sword and the Infinity Gauntlet were consistently better suited for destruction than it was; but those weapons were also unwieldy and corrupting, often being the cause of their owners' almost immediate deaths.

Mjolnir did not corrupt and could be handled with the greatest of ease, making it still the best weapon all things considered. And it was not even yet broaching the topic of its ability to build instead of destroy and the powers it could bestow upon its wielder.

All that power, up for grabs in the beginning, when the hammer did not have its worthiness-enchantment yet and was only kept from evil hands by the power of the Dwarves and later Asgard.

Many greater beings had attempted to obtain Mjolnir for themselves in order to become more powerful, and just as many had bitterly failed. The Creator did not allow fools or villains to possess such great power, not for long.

Now all Mjolnir had to do was find a worthy person and be picked up from the ground once more. The worthiness enchantments, as well as Thor's very own essence, would do the rest.

As the hammer flew past countless worlds and universes, it saw/felt several potential candidates:

A girl trapped inside a locker, with a power of will that was truly staggering, even to an ancient divine weapon. She had endured years of torment without breaking and would endure so much more if Mjolnir would let history run its course. Fated to merely rule insects, her life, though ultimately successful, would be a short and unhappy one.

Passing by, Mjolnir felt a pervert with a heart of gold. Possessing a 'Sacred Gear' that was somewhat powerful, but not all that impressive ultimately in the grand scheme of things, he too would struggle in his Journey. The odds he had to overcome with a power that he barely understood would make him ineffective as a hero, despite his very best attempts. He would have to be bailed out many times by many others, because he lacked many qualities that would have him made a fine hero.

Mjolnir could have chosen him, if there had not been someone worthier. Perhaps the hammer could have brought out the best in him. It would have had to reduce his pervertedness by a large degree though, perhaps with a nice smack in the head.

Actually, there was no reason why Mjolnir could not still smack him, even if it would not choose him.

Moving on. An orange haired protector, destined to fight in a Spiritual World that seemed to be based on Feudal Japan. This boy was a hybrid with enormous potential, perhaps the most out of all of Mjolnir's candidates. He would be too slow in accessing it though, making him have to suffer through much pain and loss, of which losing his mother would only be the beginning.

On another world, another dimension, a pink-haired girl was suffering under the burden of having no magic, in a society where magic was everything. Starting out with a kind and strong soul, she could have wielded Mjolnir, if it had chosen her. It was so very sad though that she would nearly be broken by family, school and country, to the point where violence would be her only answer to everything.

In a bus, on again another world, a young boy was on his way to his new school, a school where he would have been the only human. Spending much time after that as a human, he would largely be useless, until gaining his own power.

One of the few choices left was yet another powerless boy, hoping to join the academy of heroes. He would have succeeded even without outside assistance, even becoming more than he could have ever dreamed of, but Mjolnir would certainly help a great deal in the process should the hammer join this boy in his path.

Next up was a cast-out prince, determined to fight and defeat his former country. He would receive a power from his own planet, but that would not be enough. His masterplan was doomed to fail. His plan for peace, though seemingly quite brilliant, was faulty and based on the arrogant belief that mankind would never forget him. They would however, in a sparse few years at most.

These people and more Mjolnir passed on his way. Each of them worthy in their own way and each of them having the potential to be his wielder had the circumstances been a bit different.

They all paled in comparison though to the beacon of worthiness shining at Mjolnir's destination. This person was the worthiest of them all, the most incorruptible, and as such would receive the honour of wielding the Hammer of Thor.

The people mentioned would find their way in life without it, one way or another. They were the protagonists of their own stories after all and thus they could not fail, not truly. These were heroes or at the very least anti-heroes in the making. They had potential to become the next generation.

The Avengers, later Defenders, the X-Men, The Illuminati, Shield, the Justice League, all of these teams had started out confined to a mere planet, but had become Multiversal eventually, greatly aiding in maintaining the Balance of All and easily saving trillions of beings a day. They had been the greatest protectors the Omniverse had ever had.

Unfortunately, even all of that power could not prevent them from dying. By the sword, by age, or a plethora of other causes, they all had perished. As mentioned before, even the Marvelverse only had a few heroes left, the same was true for the DC-Verse. The reason for that was a simple one: These Verses were now at peace. The big threats had been defeated, wars were a thing of the past, hunger and energy-shortage had long since been fixed. There was no need for heroes anymore, and as such, no more heroes appeared.

This was a great loss, as these heroes had not only saved their own quadrants, but often also protected large parts of the Omniverse when the actual inhabitants of those parts were incapable of doing so themselves.

But such a thing was no longer possible now.

The One-Above-All had deemed this unacceptable and had already taken steps to obtain new heroes to fill the holes the previous ones had left. All of the people mentioned before, and many others, were about to receive their own powersets, so that they could step up to become the next Omniversal heroes instead of staying in only their own verses.

An ambitious plan, of which the transferal of Thor's power along with Mjolnir was only the first step. With Thor's death that first step was nearly complete, the plan had been set into motion. Power was about to handed out like candy, Mjolnir was only the beginning.

Mjolnir entered the right universe at last, Thor only clinging to life by a thread.

It flew passed the station of Nasu the Watcher, who peered at it with wise and understanding eyes. Mjolnir knew it had an ally in him, for Nasu too wanted only the best for all beings, as almost every Watcher did.

Feeling Thor fade quickly into Asgard's life-force, it put off that train of 'thought' for the moment and it continued its way through space, slowly approaching a version of…

Earth (for what other planet could it be?). Mjolnir entered the atmosphere, skillfully dodging debris and fooling satellites and other measuring equipment into not perceiving anything weird. It aimed for the correct nation, the nation of the Rising Sun, where it had never been before.

It focus was thrown off for a moment though, when Mjolnir felt a shield and a warning coming up around itself. It recognized the source right away. It seemed that an old friend of Thor had decided to help fend off any possible challengers.

While Mjolnir doubted the protection would last forever, it was reasonably sure that it would last at least for as long as it would take to bring its new wielder to an acceptable level of power.

Mjolnir fell and fell, closer and closer to the worthy person down there. It could feel him. Thor may lie dying at that very moment, but Mjolnir swore this next wielder would be someone he could be proud of.

The hammer increased its speed even more. It was only a few miles from the ground when it decided to slow down a bit. No sense in creating an Earthquake or otherwise alerting others to its arrival, it would have to be somewhat stealthy while approaching its new wielder.

As luck would have it, its new wielder was currently alone, walking through a small forest. An excellent opportunity for the hammer to introduce itself and not one it would allow to just pass by.

And so, Mjolnir descended, flying straight ahead, aiming for…

Fuyuki City.

* * *

 **Chapter two done. I am aware that this was a short chapter, but there wasn't much to tell really. This part told some more about Mjolnir (more information to come of course) and gave an introduction to other stories I am planning on making.**

 **For those of you wondering where Shirou himself is, he'll appear from the next chapter onwards. This story is about him, and about him only. I will add other POV's fairly frequently, or use the omniscient storyteller here and there, but the main character is Shirou, just so you all know.**

 **Can you guess who the people were that Mjolnir referred to? There's no reward, but you will have impressed me if you know one or more. If you are surprised that I would consider some of them Mjolnir worthy, in my stories, I'll go with the best possible interpretation of their character. I'll try not to make them too OCC, but I'll definitely clean up their act a bit.**

 **You should also be aware that both Thor and Mjolnir have more powers and abilities than the ones I have mentioned up to now. Those other powers will come forth when it is their time.**

 **Here's an omake by the way. I would like to add that I do not hate this character,** **but my brother insisted on me making something like this:**

* * *

Issei Hyoudou was, once again, attempting to perv on girls, who were changing after a day of sporting. It was a lucky coincidence that he had found a hole in the wall big enough to look through and located at the back of the changing room, so no one would see him peeping on the girls.

His friends were looking alongside him of course, they were as desperate for a look as he was, if not more. They had thought that being among the very few boys at this school would get them at least one girlfriend, but it was not to be. Not a single girl was interested in any of them.

Probably because they were perverts. Issei had to admit that such a thing would be quite a deal-breaker in terms of relationships.

Refocusing on the matter at hand, Issei hoped he would be able to see a pair of real boobs today, but honestly, he doubted it. It had been a wish of his for so long now, but despite many tries, he had never actually seen any.

That didn't prevent him from trying though, and even if boobs weren't in sight, there was still plenty of naked skin to see. So he looked, his friends muttering and giggling all the while.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much space at the hole they were trying to peep through, and in their inevitable struggle for more room to watch, they ended up falling on the ground, hard, making a lot of noise. Mere moments later, it went very quiet inside the changing room, a quiet few moments quickly followed by angry voices.

Issei sat up immediately, hoping they would be able to get away before the girls found them.

"Guys, quick, we have to get away!" He proclaimed, foregoing the need for stealth, but upon turning around, he discovered his friends had already bailed, leaving him behind. It was also at this moment that he heard rustling behind him.

The girls had found him already.

Issei sweatdropped and chuckled nervously, backing away slowly. Maybe he could run for it?

It was not to be. The girls, armed with bokken, stones, and fists, were upon him in a mere second, viciously beating him into the ground. "How often do we have to teach you a lesson for you to stop?" One raged at him. "Do you really have nothing better to do?"

Their piece said, and their point made, the girls left again, angrily muttering about stupid boys and ugly perverts. Issei sat up, bruised and battered, and tried to stand. After some trying and failing, couples with noises of pain and discomfort, he succeeded in standing upright.

His head held down, he started speaking: "This was a catastrophic failure, as it has been every other time. I just don't seem to be able to ever see a pair of real boobs, no matter how hard I try. Maybe I should just give up now, save myself the embarrassment and pain. That is what everyone else would do."

Then Issei threw his head up. "But not me! I will continue trying, even after failing a thousand times. I have chosen this path and I will see it through until the end, straying is for those without heart, without courage. I shall not be a coward, not now, not ever."

Feeling his blood pumping at his own words, Issei threw his hands up in the air, and exclaimed: "I SHALL BECOME THE HAREM KING!"

'BOOM'

Was the sudden sound echoing over the campus of the school. A sound that had many jump up like startled bunnies, never having heard such a loud noise before. The windows rattled, a couple even broke. The ground itself shook, as if there had been a sudden short earthquake.

Everyone clamoured around, trying to find the source of the noise, but to no avail.

Well, almost everyone. In her clubhouse, Rias Gremory sat very still. Just now, she had felt an enormous amount of power crashing down upon the school. Raw, wild power, more than she had ever felt before. Was it possible that this was the Dragon?

While Rias was thinking about possible explanations and the other students were running around, Issei lifted his head. He had somehow obtained a massive headache, as evidenced by the pain and the throbbing in his head.

He did not know what had happened, one moment all had been fine with him reaffirming his ultimate goal, and the next he had woken up with the worst headache to ever headache. Had he been hit by something?

Issei looked around, not really expecting to find anything, but then his jaw dropped in shock. Before him was a hammer. A beautiful hammer, power seemingly radiating from it. No doubt this was the thing that had hit him in the head.

However, just as he reached out for it, the hammer rose from the ground again, and shot away faster than he could follow.

"Oi, wait." Issei yelled. "You can't just hit me in the head and then fly away. Stay here and explain yourself."

But the hammer did not listen and disappeared into the sky. This had been a momentary interlude in its travels, to knock some sense into the fool, but now it had to go, to its new wielder.

At the same time, somewhere else, impossibly far away, yet somehow still close enough to see everything that had transpired, a giant golden being with three faces palmed one of those faces.

One of the future heroes being hit in the head by Mjolnir. His brother would never let him hear the end of it.

* * *

 **And done. An omake about the hammer making a detour to knock some sense into Issei Hyoudou.**

 **The golden being will also make an appearance, either next chapter or the one after that.**

 **Have a nice day all of you.**

 **Edited later for better flow and better choice of words.**


	3. The Dawn of a New Hero

**The Dawn of a New Hero**

It was hot.

Shirou walked along the street, past the flames that were surrounding him on all sides. His empty, lifeless eyes stared forward as he walked, hoping against all hope for a chance at survival. He ignored the dead and the dying, yet couldn't ignore the heat, the pain, and above all, those roaring flames, chasing him forward.

The flames encompassed everything in sight, burning it all to cinders. Even things that should not burn were consumed by this unnatural fire, that seemed to roar its fury and hate to the equally burning sky, as if cursing something up there.

Bodies laid everywhere, spread around, as if a giant had randomly poured them out into the streets. All of them blackened and burned, yet somehow still fueling the fire.

Screams of pain and anguish filled the air. Desperate pleas and prayers were called out by all those that somehow still lived. But they all went unheeded. The flames continued their work, making no distinction between man, animal, or thing, young or old, noble or evil.

It just _burned_.

Shirou still walked on, past the bodies of the dying. People all around him were pleading for his help, for him to look at them, to acknowledge them, but he could not stop, he had to keep walking. So he kept walking.

At some places though, he saw people trying to help each other, and failing miserably in the process. Friends attempting to support each other while fleeing, only to burn together; parents trying to free their children from the wreckage, only to be crushed alongside them. Total strangers trampling each other in their blind panic. Lovers united in one last embrace, fused together by the immense heat. There was only death, no matter where he looked.

And Death then came for him as well. When everyone in Shirou's sight had died, it finally directed its empty sockets at the boy himself.

It came in the form of those unnatural flames. They whispered to him, tried to claim him for themselves, as they had all others. They demanded a sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice: His life.

Shirou however did not want to give up his life, stubbornly clinging onto it, fighting against the flames, resisting their will with his own. But ultimately, it was futile. Unless he would sacrifice something to the hungry conflagration around him, he would fall. So he began feeding it, with whatever he possessed.

His memories went first, all of them, from his birth until this night, all lost to the fire. Then his emotions, they only weighed him down here. He had to get rid of them, so get rid of them he did.

His hatred held him back? He got rid of it; his sadness made him want to turn around? He got rid of it; His despair made him want to sink to his knees? It went right into the flames; his happiness, fear, anger, all of it, now gone.

Eventually, it was only a hollow existence that was still walking there. And still the flames surrounded him, demanding more.

It was then that Shirou had nothing more to offer to those flames, nothing left to give to the Thing that had sent them. His legs gave in, exhausted, their limit finally reached. As he laid there on his back, his empty eyes stared up at the sky, no longer seeking salvation, but simply desiring to see it one last time.

Blackened flames elongated towards him, to burn him to ashes like everyone else, to curse him with All the World's Evils and feast on his Soul.

Hollow he might be, Shirou still tried to struggle, desperately crawling away with his aching arms, attempting to fight off the taint. He didn't notice his surroundings anymore, didn't care for his situation except for that once again, he had to survive.

The taint pursued him however, reaching out to their meal, laughing mockingly at his attempt to flee, to defy them.

Eventually, Shirou could no longer continue crawling, his arms bruised black and bleeding from dozens of cuts, and the last bits of strength fading from his failing body. He was forced to come to a halt, and watched with empty eyes as the flames cried out in pleasure and anticipation as they jumped towards him...

Only to be stopped by a wall of wispy, white light, that seemed to form a barrier around him, preventing the flames from continuing any further. Some of the light seeped into him, strengthening him a bit. And while the power was doing so, Shirou could have sworn he heard a voice.

" _That boy is not for you to consume, little god."_

...

Shirou blinked when he found himself back among ash and bodies, the flames around him almost doused somehow. His tired mind was just mulling over this sudden development, when he heard a voice call out:

"Anyone? Is anyone there? Are there any survivors? Please, if you can hear me, call something back!"

A black-haired man was walking through the debris, seemingly in search of something. Shirou opened his mouth to call out to him, but found he did not have a voice to call with. His throat was too dry. Fortunately, the man's gaze eventually fell on him.

Shirou saw the man's mouth drop in surprise and his eyes light up in happiness. The man rushed over to him and pulled out… _Something_.

A wave of blue and golden light washed over Shirou, and he felt a rush of energy, far more potent than the wispy light, far more pure.

The golden light illuminated, moulded, something inside of him, something he now saw before him in all of its glory. Something magnificent, yet so very incomplete somehow…

Then he blinked, finding himself back in that hell for the second time. Something was different though. Where was the pressure in his lungs? The pain in his limbs? The dull ache in his head? It was as if he'd been healed completely. Was this the work of that man?

Raising his head, Shirou looked at the man sitting in front of him, his saviour. This little action seemed to fill the man with happiness, as he hugged Shirou tight and muttered, over and over again:

"He's alive, thank God he's alive, thank you, thank you."

Shirou's eyes were locked unto the man holding him. He still felt empty inside, but seeing his saviour look so happy brought a question to his mind.

' _Could I be that happy if I saved someone?'_

That question remained in Shirou's mind, even as he succumbed to exhaustion and fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

When Shirou awoke, he found himself lying in a bed. The pain and agony as well as the feeling of sheer wrongness that had been prevalent in the fire were strangely absent from his body and mind now. He carefully flexed his fingers and toes, and then his arms and legs, trying to feel if something was wrong with them.

Feeling nothing off, he pushed himself into a seating position, raising his arms to check them for injuries. Again finding nothing, Shirou allowed himself to exhale, feeling something resembling relief upon seeing no obvious wounds on his body.

His head felt very clear and empty, but Shirou didn't linger on that for long, as he immediately checked his surroundings.

There wasn't much to see, but Shirou nevertheless took it all in, not having expected to ever see anything again. The simple white walls, the windows showing him the bright blue sky, the monitors showing his vitals. He feasted his eyes on it all.

Shirou quickly realised that he was in a hospital room, though he could not recall how he had arrived there...

Wait! No, he remembered. He had been walking through a fire, Shirou clearly recalled fighting it, trying to walk out of it, yet eventually succumbing to the heat and his own exhaustion. He could almost feel tongues of fire licking at his skin, and there had been a wispy light...

That memory slipped away before it could truly form, and Shirou collected his thoughts again. Right after the fire, there had been a black-haired man, who had healed Shirou with a strange light coming from something in his hands.

His _Saviour_ , he realised. No doubt the man had brought him here after he had taken Shirou from the fire.

When Shirou looked to the other side, he almost gasped in surprise. Next to him sat the very man that had saved him. He was of average height, thin, pale, clad in black clothes, with black hair and even black eyes. The man had been sunk deep in thought, but the moment Shirou's head turned towards him, he rose from those thoughts to look Shirou in the eyes.

After a moment of staring, Shirou spoke up:

"Thank you." Was all he said, not having the energy or the clarity of mind to form a longer sentence. It seemed enough for the man though, as he blinking in surprise, before smiling slightly at Shirou in response, his formerly dead eyes now gaining a faint light.

' _Is_ _that because of me? Is this man truly that happy that he saved me from the fire? Is saving someone truly that gratifying?'_ These questions and more unconsciously formed in Shirou's mind. He did not actively think them over yet, but they had taken root now, and would not easily disappear.

"You're welcome." The man answered. "Really, it was the least I could do, after everything I've done."

Shirou did not understand what the man meant by that, but he did not let that deter him. "My name is Shirou, it's nice to meet you."

The man nodded at his words, and replied in kind: "I am Emiya Kiritsugu, it's nice to meet you too, even if I would like to have met you in another way."

After some hesitation, the man, _Kiritsugu_ , spoke up again. "Do you know anything else about yourself? A last name? Your family perhaps?"

Shirou shook his head, his life before the fire was all gone from his mind, only a big black hole being present where his memories were supposed to be.

Kiritsugu frowned, before declaring that it did not matter. Shirou should not stress himself too much. "Besides, I'm sure it will all be okay in the end."

A happy ending? That would be nice. Shirou gripped his blankets tighter though, when he remembered such an outcome was no longer possible for everyone.

The man's words, as benign as they were meant to be, had reminded the red-haired boy of his actions while walking through the fire. Or rather, his inaction. How he had stood by, and done nothing, as people around him died in agony and terror. They too had deserved a happy end, hadn't they? Shouldn't he be saying something about that...

A large yawn cut off any words he might have tried to speak aloud, as sleep then started to overtake him again. Shirou, as would become a normal occurrence for him in the future, had completely missed his body's ever increasing need for rest. And now he paid the toll, as he was forced to slip back into unconsciousness right away.

Before he closed his eyes however, he had to confirm one thing for his inner peace. He met his saviour's gaze, asking a question through his stare.

The man, understanding what he was trying to convey, blinked once in surprise, before nodding his head reassuringly, sitting up straighter on his chair. "I will stay here, for as long as is necessary." He spoke in a solemn promise.

His worries abated, as he knew the man was not lying, Shirou sunk back into the pillow behind him and fell asleep again, his rest dreamless and undisturbed.

* * *

Upon waking for the second time in a hospital bed, the first thing Shirou did was to turn his head sideways. The man, _Kiritsugu_ , had disappeared, but his coat was still hanging over the back of the chair, indicating he was still somewhere around here, as he had promised.

Now feeling more at ease, as well as less tired than before, Shirou once again took in his surroundings, now trying to remember them in more detail. The walls were white, as was appropriate. The bed was white as well. The monitors next to him were beeping and humming steadily, displaying information that he did not know how to handle or interpret.

All in all, a normal hospital room. He could not recall whether he'd been in one before, but he could recognize it all the same.

Then, in the middle of his observations, the red-haired boy heard voices coming from behind the door.

"This is amazing," one said. "He is completely healthy, no burns, first-degree or otherwise. He has no broken bones or bruises, no organ damage. Even his lungs seem to be completely clean, without any trace of smoke and ash. This is simply a miracle, especially since he was picked up near ground zero."

"Well, excellent then." Another replied. "The sooner he's given a clean bill of health, the sooner we can have a bed free for someone else. God knows we need it with this disaster. Never before have I heard of fire that burned stone and iron as if it were wood, that refuses to be put out by water or sand, without any chemicals nearby. The boy must have been blessed to survive all that without injury."

"We could give him a clean bill of health right away," The first voice answered, sounding slightly more morose than in the beginning. "The only problem is that no one has come for him yet. No family, friends, or otherwise. The boy himself has heavy memory loss. He doesn't remember anything at all, which makes finding any relatives like finding a needle in a haystack.

"Fucking bad luck. His family probably died in the flames, poor boy. I heard though that the man who saved him is applying for guardianship. If the boy is really alone, he'll be adopted right away at least."

"That's a great relief, I hope more people like that can be found soon. The other orphans will need them."

"Hm, quite."

The voices continued on speaking, but Shirou's mind was elsewhere, ruminating his new discoveries. Kiritsugu had applied for guardianship for him? That was great news! Even though Shirou barely knew the man, he did know that if no family came forth, he would very much prefer going with him than going to an orphanage or a family he did not know at all.

His choice made, Shirou laid back down on the bed again. Glancing at it, he decided that he should get out as soon as possible. Apparently other people needed this bed.

* * *

Doctor Tanaka watched the other man walk away after their discussion. He had initially considered it a little weird that the man had stopped him in the middle of the hallway, in front of a patient's door no less, to just give him a general status report, but he was glad now that the man had done so. The overall number of patients had been much higher than expected and Tanaka would have to ask for more help from neighboring cities. The damn fire had caused so many wounded that they already had to call in help from other hospitals, and now they would have to do so again.

The man walking away was in fact from one of those other hospitals. His presence was a testimony to the worst disaster in Tanaka's memory. These days had been a clusterfuck in every way.

Still, the man could be thankful for small miracles, such as the condition of the boy in the room they had been standing in front of. The miracle was marred though by the very likely loss of the boy's family and friends. What had the other doctor been thinking, talking so blatantly about the patient's condition when said patient might have heard him? Did he want the boy to hear everything?

By all rights, a conversation like that should only have taken place in private quarters or behind heavy doors.

But no, the man had insisted on talking right in front of the boy's door. Extremely weird if you asked Tanaka.

On that matter, the man was odd in general. From the very beginning, Tanaka had been weary of him. It was nothing he could explain, but it was just... the man always seemed so cold, no matter what, even when he was supposedly displaying emotion about things happening around him.

 _'An odd tick perhaps, or maybe he has been hardened in many other previous disasters.'_ Doctor Tanaka reasoned, not unused to people having closed themselves off from the outside world after too much hurt.

It didn't really matter anyway, as long as the job was done. From what he had seen, the man was a hard worker and very dedicated to both his own assigned patients and those of others should they require something. He had been respectful to everyone, so Tanaka could be respectful to him. He would simply ignore the other man's oddities as well as he could.

Realizing he had only referred to the good doctor as 'the other man' for a while now, Tanaka made an attempt at remembering the man's name. It had been an odd one, some kind of fancy foreign one perhaps.

Ah yes, doctor Donald Blake. That was it. An odd man, but certainly a fine one.

* * *

After a couple of hours of fitful sleep, Shirou woke up once more, seeing Kiritsugu sitting in the chair beside his bed again, in the exact same position as before.

Upon noticing Shirou's gaze however, the man stood up and walked up to his bedside, looking oddly nervous for some reason.

"I, ah, I have a choice, for you I mean." The man began haltingly, not bothering with greetings or pleasantries. "As it is, no family has come forth for you, no relatives or anything, so I think they're all de-"

At this, he stopped himself with a wince, looking apologetically at Shirou. Seeing the boy still staring at him calmly, he continued, attempting to have a bit more tact. "I have already taken the liberty of filing adoption papers while you were sleeping in case something like that would occur. So, if you agree, I can take you in as my son. What I mean is, you can choose now. You can go to an orphanage or another family, where you'll likely be happy one day, or you can come with this old man and let him mess up any progress he made so far."

That was not a difficult choice for Shirou, he had already decided hours before after all. Wordlessly, he pointed at Kiritsugu, who gave a relieved smile back.

"Okay," he said, seeming much more at ease now. "Then I suppose your name is Emiya Shirou from now on. Welcome to the family."

Shirou had amnesia and had never been a social genius on top of that. He didn't even remember the fact that he'd never been one. But even with those handicaps, he could not possibly miss the flash of pain that went through Kiritsugu's eyes at the mention of family. Sitting up, he took the man's hand in his own, smiling at him and receiving a somewhat startled, but sincere one back.

Shirou would simply have to help him with his pain. Kiritsugu had saved Shirou, so it was only fair that Shirou would do everything he could to help Kiritsugu. Maybe Shirou could even save him from what was hurting him.

It wasn't until many years later that Shirou truly realized how much he had already saved Kiritsugu that day.

* * *

Walking out of the hospital the next day, (and finally freeing that damn bed), Shirou said his goodbyes to doctors Tanaka and Blake. Doctor Tanaka had been nice in his farewells, but doctor Blake had had an oddly satisfied look in his eyes while saying his goodbyes. Shirou supposed he was probably happy with the free bed.

Shirou turned his attention to Kiritsugu, who was walking next to him. He was almost bursting with the questions he wanted to ask. He had simple ones, like where they were going to live, as well as difficult ones, in particular about the mysterious light Kiritsugu had used to apparently heal him. Shirou had refrained from mentioning the light to anyone, as it was only Kiritsugu's business, but now that they were alone, he dared to ask.

It didn't take long for Kiritsugu to notice his new son's gaze on him, and he slowed down enough to have a proper conversation.

Not one to let such a chance go by, Shirou asked the question he'd been sitting on for a while now: "Where are we going now?"

"Well," Kiritsugu said in response to the question. "I have a nice house in Miyama town that we can live in from now on, and I have enough money stored away for us to live comfortably for quite a while, so you don't have to worry about that.

"Cool." Shirou nodded. "What was that light that you used to heal me back in the fire?"

Kiritsugu looked at Shirou with a pondering gaze after that question, and then nodded his head. "It would be for the best if you knew as soon as possible. Shirou, there is something you should know about me, something very important that may sound very unbelievable at first, but I assure you it is true. You see, I am a wizard."

...

"Okay." Shirou said solemnly, seeing no reason to doubt the man's words. He had suspected as much, after the conversation between Tanaka and Blake before his door and the resulting revelation that he was completely unharmed in any way.

Kiritsugu blinked once at Shirou's easy acceptance of his words, and then shook his head wordlessly, a faint chuckle escaping him. Really, only a child would accept something like that so easily and without question. Illyasviel had been much the same...

"So, what can you do?" Shirou asked, breaking the older man up from the painful memories that had assailed him. "Being a wizard and all."

"I'd rather not talk about that." Was the immediate answer. "Maybe later, when you're older."

Seeing no problem with that, Shirou agreed easily enough.

* * *

The house was rather big and spacious, too large for just the two of them. It came with three furnished bedrooms, four guestrooms, a nice living room, a well-equipped kitchen and plenty of space out front and out back. It even had several sheds behind the actual house, and much storage space for all kinds of objects.

Shirou and Kiritsugu hadn't faced any major problems getting settled in. It wasn't long before they felt and acted like they truly were father and son, for as far as they knew what such roles entailed. Shirou had even taken to calling Kiritsugu 'dad' after a mere two months of living together.

Such was the bond the two of them had formed after saving each other. Kiritsugu had rescued Shirou from the fire, earning Shirou's eternal trust, while Shirou had saved Kiritsugu through allowing him to truly save just one person in his life.

They had reached out to the neighbours rather quickly. Those neighbours had turned out to be nice people, despite being Yakuza. Old man Raiga had been very welcoming, and his granddaughter, one Fujimura Taiga, had even claimed Shirou as her new little brother. Though, from the way she had been acting until now, Shirou had deduced that he was the older one in their relationship, if only in mind and deed.

There were, as was perhaps reasonable, also downsides to this new life though.

Shirou had been plagued by nightmares ever since the fire, waking up drenched in sweat and with the curses of those he left behind clear in mind. Kiritsugu had not deemed this strange, as it was very normal to experience nightmares as a result of trauma. Still, if they kept up, they'd go see a specialist, he had promised.

Shirou did not think an ordinary specialist would be able to help him though. The nightmares felt far realer and occurred far more often than they should. There was nothing natural about them, as they showed him the exact same every night. There seemed to be no getting rid of them, and the red-haired boy began to believe he would have to deal with them for the rest of his life.

Fate would have it though, that he would solve this problem all by himself, mere weeks after the nightmares' first appearance.

After having woken up from yet another vivid dream, Shirou could not do anything except lay still on his bed, with breathing already being a chore that took all energy out of him. His mind had still been reeling from all the other nightmares of the past months, and this one had perhaps been the worst of them all.

He had seen it again. The fire, consuming everything around him, taking his memories and identity.

That had not been the worst though. In his nightmares, those aspects were easily ignored. What happened to Shirou himself was of little consequence to the boy. What truly made those dreams terrible for him were the other people in them. The people that had died in the ruins.

They were there in his dreams, burning and dying. They cursed him as he walked past them. Condemning him for the sin of remaining alive while all others perished. Loudly proclaiming he should have fallen, like they had.

' _I did not have the right to survive. Why was only I pulled out of the fire? Why was I saved when everyone else was not? Does my life have special meaning? Am I supposed to do something extraordinary with it?'_

Shirou didn't know. All he knew was that he felt awful, and that there was nothing that seemed to help him feel joy again.

Taking care of Kiritsugu, cooking, talking with Taiga and helping her out with a variety of things, going to school and talking with other people his age. It was all very normal, and it did serve to give him some superficial satisfaction, but he couldn't feel joy, no true happiness.

Shirou had pondered for a long time what he could do to help himself, but nothing had come to mind, until tonight, after this particularly bad nightmare.

He had seen the fire again, and that had been awful, but it had made him remember Kiritsugu, and the incredible joy the man had in his eyes when he pulled Shirou out of the fire.

That joy, that incredible happiness and satisfaction.

That was what Shirou craved, what he never managed to obtain so far, and his father did obtain, through the simple act of saving someone.

Would that work for him? Could he save someone and become happy through that? Or did he need to save many people?

It would perhaps allow him to make up for his failures, for abandoning all those people to the fire while selfishly continuing to walk forward, only concerned about himself.

It was certainly worth a try.

He would become a hero of justice, and save people, and through that, he would atone for his sins, and perhaps manage to experience joy once more.

He had found himself a new wish, to save as many people as possible.

* * *

The next morning, he told his father of his new-found wish, choosing not to mention his strange dream. Kiritsugu listened with a patient ear to Shirou's words, giving no reaction at all, his face remaining still.

After Shirou had finished, his father looked at him with an indiscernible expression. "You know son, I understand what you mean. When I was young, I wanted to become a superhero, you know? But then things happened, and I didn't... I couldn't believe in my dream anymore."

Seeing his father more down than he'd ever been, Shirou was quick to reassure him. "That's okay dad, I'll become a hero in your place. I promise."

The red-haired boy didn't care much for the background on Kiritsugu's failed dream, nor did he feel the need to pry. He just knew that he had to save people to make up for his own sins, to find happiness for himself, and if that tied into an old dream of his father, all the better for the both of them.

Kiritsugu laughed at his son's perceived joke, until he saw just how serious Shirou was looking. The laughter immediately stopped, the black-eyed man back to being still as stone.

He was no fool, he could guess why Shirou wanted to be a hero all of a sudden, and he also knew he would not be able to deviate his son from that path. He himself would not have been deviated by anything, and he hadn't had an immense trauma forcing him into action, like his son did.

No, trying to stop Shirou, either by inaction or by actively working against him, would yield nothing but trouble later down the line, when he was gone and Shirou would be left to pick up the pieces.

Oh yes, Kiritsugu knew many things would still happen to the boy after his own death. He had made too many enemies and tempted fate too often to be granted the mercy of having his own son live a peaceful life. He knew, as certain as he'd ever known something, that Shirou would have to deal with everything Kiritsugu had neglected to deal with in his life. Inaction was not an option, but he knew not what he should do instead.

He decided to think on it, but he still had to give his son a response.

There was only one thing he could do.

"Well then Shirou, would you like some training from me?"

* * *

When Kiritsugu had offered to train his son, he had planned on teaching the boy tactical skills, strategy, fighting, planning and more of the mundane things he would need if he would follow his dream. The world was often unkind to those like his son, and he would be damned if he didn't try his best to prepare the boy for that. Fortunately, Shirou had done excellently up to now in those areas.

He had also planned on attempting to teach the boy some Magecraft, not a lot, nothing too advanced, but the basic things. In all honesty, he had expected that Shirou wouldn't have a lot of success with it, the boy being a first-generation Magus and Kiritsugu a rather lousy teacher. His expectation had been that his son would soon lose interest when he kept failing to achieve proper results.

That estimation had turned out to be only partially correct. His son did indeed not have any talent at Magecraft, at all. The only things he was capable of doing correctly with any consistency were Structural Grasping and Reinforcement. All other areas turned out to be nigh dead-ends to him, with progress going at a slower than a snail's pace.

Yet Shirou had not given up. He had persisted, stubbornly going on with his practice, seemingly determined to become a hero, no matter the effort he would have to put into it.

His tediousness did bear fruit though, since his Structural Grasping and Reinforcement had reached high level after months of tedious practice, with Shirou showing no signs of stopping with either his continued efforts or his progress in these fields. Kiritsugu would even wager that Shirou was better at the skills than any other Magus currently alive, with maybe a scant few exceptions. His son also managed to get at least a rudimentary understanding of the basic aspects of general Magecraft, such as Runes, Formalcraft and Bounded Fields. He was still at about the lowest level imaginable, but even that was more than Kiritsugu had expected.

He truly was a lousy teacher. It was a miracle Iri had been able to learn some things from him, never mind Illya. No doubt those two had long practices together behind his back or something, because he could not teach for the life of him if Shirou was any indication.

It had come as a horrible shock to him when Shirou, after three weeks of training, had revealed to him that he was using his nerves as makeshift-Magic Circuits, thinking that was the correct way. Kiritsugu had quickly disabused him of that notion, instead opening his natural Circuits for him to use instead, as he was supposed to.

No doubt the boy had dodged quite the bullet there. There was no way that he ever could have reached any level of expertise at all with only those butchered nerves to power him. There wasn't much risk to his health though, not with Avalon still shining brightly. That at least had been fortunate.

Shaking his head, Kiritsugu redirected his attention towards the other two people present in the dojo of the house, keenly observing both of them as they sparred.

Taiga had turned out to be rather good at Kendo. As in, very good, good enough to easily make her way into top-tournaments if she could be bothered to apply. As such, Shirou had immediately requested she teach him, which she had gladly agreed to do, seemingly very happy with a chance to spend more time with 'her favourite neighbours', as she called them.

It had taken only one spar for Shirou and Kiritsugu to discover that she was indeed very good, and quite a decent teacher to boot. Under her guidance, Shirou was progressing very nicely.

Well, who knew? His son might just become a hero yet.

Despite his jovial thoughts though, there was a gloom around the older man, that had been there for several days already. Kiritsugu knew he would have to tell Shirou the truth soon, about a lot of things. He could no longer put it off, Shirou was old enough now and deserved to know how it was that the Fuyuki Fire had started. And who was ultimately responsible for it, and thus responsible for his suffering.

No matter how much he dreaded that conversation, it was time for it.

* * *

That very same evening, Shirou sat down in front of his father. Said parent was looking at his adoptive son with a face that could have been carved out of stone. Shirou was admittedly somewhat nervous. His dad only ever looked that serious if there something really big was going on, like the time he had been told that changing nerves into Magic Circuits was not the way to go. He had been rather glad with that, as converting his nerves had felt like shoving a burning spike up his spine.

He watched his father shift on his seat, clearly trying to find his words, until he took a deep breath, and then started talking. About things that seemed impossible, yet that Shirou knew to be true.

Shirou's eyes widened and his expression grew progressively shocked as his father told him about his past. How his childhood had been, in hiding from the Clocktower, how he had killed his own father and foster mother, though both for very different reasons. About his life as an assassin and mercenary; about the Einzbern family approaching him with an offer; about his wife, Irisviel; about the Fourth Holy Grail War, the atrocities committed during it, and even about the eventual consequences of his actions.

Shirou had a hard time processing things after his father revealed that it had been him who had caused the Great Fire of Fuyuki-City, after he had seen the Grail's corruption in the form of the God of Evil, Angra Mainyu, and had ordered his poor servant, King Arthur (who was a woman apparently), to destroy it.

Throughout the story, Shirou could hear his father tone change from dead and monotone, to pained and grieving. Kiritsugu clearly regretted what he had done, what he had been during most of his life, and most he regretted to have left his wive and daughter, while causing a disaster that was worse than anything he had ever seen.

When Kiritsugu was done talking, Shirou thus stood up and walked up to him. Kiritsugu seemed three parts curious and one part resigned, as if he expected Shirou to blow up at him. Shirou did not such thing however, rather, he gave his dad a big hug, to the man's visible surprise.

"That's really terrible." Shirou sighed sadly. "But it wasn't your fault, dad, especially not what happened in the Grail War. It was Angra Mainyu's fault that the fire started and the Einzbern's fault that Irisviel died. Besides, you saved me from the fire, so how could I not forgive you right now?"

Kiritsugu was visibly thrown for a loop again, but smiled after Shirou was done speaking. "I am glad you think of it that way, my son, but I know that I have failed as a hero, as a man, and I have no way to make up for it, except by training you. Still, now that you're so accepting of all of this, there is one other matter I wish to discuss with you."

Kiritsugu took a deep breath, looked Shirou in the eye and spoke: "Your sister."

"My sister?" Shirou repeated, his jaw dropping in shock. It was just one surprise after another with his father today.

Indeed, his sister. Who was still in Germany, held by the Einzbern, who were no doubt doing terrible things to her, seeing that she was to be the Grail's next vessel. Kiritsugu had attempted, and would attempt again in the future, to free her, but he did not have the strength anymore to do so.

Now having an explanation as to why his father was sometimes away for a couple of weeks, and why he would always return downcast and depressed, and seeing his longing face, Shirou promptly promised to save his new-found sister. That was what a hero should do after all.

Kiritsugu patted Shirou on the head, his expression far lighter than ever before. This conversation had clearly done his dad good. Maybe they should have talks like this more often.

And they did. Over the next years, Kiritsugu would tell him many things, things about his life, things about his family, and above all, things about the slaughter masquerading as a war over a so-called Holy Grail.

Safe to say, the stories were not exactly of the happy variety.

* * *

It was a couple of months later that Shirou was out to shop for groceries, like he had done so often before. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary as Shirou went from shop to shop, buying what was needed in the house.

It was on his last stop though that he saw a girl, apparently shopping just like him, straining to carry her bag. She seemed to be alone, as he couldn't find anyone helping her or even looking at her. Rather, everyone walked past her, as if not noticing her at all.

Him being Emiya Shirou, he immediately went over to help her in her task, taking over her admittedly heavy bag from her. Kiritsugu hadn't been training him for nothing and he managed to lift and carry the bag with relative ease.

"Ha?" The girl proclaimed upon seeing him, clearly surprised by his sudden appearance and action. Taking a better look at her, Shirou saw that she had purple hair and violet eyes. She looked like she was around his age, but with empty eyes and an expression that seemed devoid of emotion, resembling what he had looked like during the months after the fire. It did shift into a questioning look though as she seemed to assess him in turn.

"Hello," Shirou said in answer to her unspoken question. "You looked like you were having trouble with this, would you allow me to help you?"

"Ah, s-sure." The girl murmured, now thoroughly confused at his actions. "Why though?" She asked, seemingly not capable of understanding why this stranger would want to carry her bag for her.

"I like helping people. I couldn't just leave you alone while you looked like you could use some help. My name is Emiya Shirou by the way, nice to meet you."

"Ah, yes. Uhm, my name is Matou Sakura, nice to meet you too. You really don't have to help me though. I can manage."

"It's no problem, really. I could see you were struggling with this."

Seeing she was still not entirely convinced, Shirou added: "It would be my pleasure if you'd let me walk you home."

Noticing his golden eyes looking at her with an earnest gaze, Sakura blushed a bit. "Oh, well. Then I thank you for your help."

Shirou smiled brightly at her, causing her blush to deepen, and asked her to lead the way. Quickly shaking her head, recollecting her thoughts in the process, Sakura obliged. The two pre-teens then started walking together towards Sakura's place of residence.

After some prodding from Shirou, they talked for a bit about unimportant matters, such as school, any hobbies they had and even very mundane things like the weather.

While discussing the last of those subjects, Sakura earnestly told him she liked the sun very much.

"Really? You like the sun?" Shirou asked, looking up at the yellow ball currently hanging in the sky, with no single cloud in sight.

"Yes, of course. It is so warm and radiant. Its light makes everything seem beautiful. I really like going outside when it shines, but I'm not allowed to…"

Sakura promptly clammed up, not speaking another word. And despite Shirou's inquiries, she did not speak again until he had changed the subject.

"But what do you like then, Emiya-san? What kind of weather to you think is the best?" She quickly asked, hoping to bring the conversation over to him.

Shirou had to think about that. He had never thought all that much about what his favourite kind of weather was. Still, he knew there was only one answer.

"Storms." He said, "I like storms, with thunder and lightning. I know that might seem weird, but it's really my favourite kind of weather. I can look at it for hours at the time."

This got a raised eyebrow from Sakura. Upon seeing it, Shirou laughed sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. He couldn't really explain it, it just was so.

As they continued walking, Shirou noticed Sakura seemed to brighten up in front of his eyes the longer they talked. Where before her eyes were empty, they now had some light in them. Her expression was more open too. It was still not very expressive, but it was certainly better than before.

Until they arrived at her home.

Shirou immediately sensed the unnaturalness and foulness laying over the house like a blanket. Giving no outward indication of his observations on his face, he turned to Sakura to comment on it, to ask her what was wrong with her home. He held his tongue however, when he saw her wilt at the spot. Her face again fixed in an emotionless look, she turned to him, took her bag from his shoulder and bowed to him.

"Thank you for walking me back to my house, Emiya-san." It was said in an voice ever more emotionless than when she had first spoken to him.

And before Shirou could answer, she ran back inside.

Shirou was now understandably concerned. Both about the foulness of the Matou estate and about Sakura herself. Why had she seemed so despondent when she walked in? He did not know, and he didn't like it one bit.

 _'I hope I'll see her again soon.'_ He thought, before walking home himself, his mind on the girl he had met today. Maybe she needed more help than just the carrying of her bag? But how would he know for sure, and would she appreciate his help in the first place? Was he reading too much in this?

He didn't know, but he would try to keep a closer eye on her. Within the reasonable bounds of privacy of course.

* * *

As fate would have it, he did see her again. The very next day in fact, when he was walking back home from school. Crossing through a park, since his normal route had been blocked because of a sudden construction project, he heard voices yelling in excitement and apparent enjoyment in the distance.

It wasn't the innocent yelling of happy children though. It had a tribal and savage note to it, something baser. Not something that belonged in park in a supposedly civilised town. Shirou decided to check what was going on there and thus quickly altered his direction. He had a feeling someone needed his aid.

Upon arriving at his destination and identifying the source of the racket, he learned he was correct in his assumptions. He felt indignation and rage rise at the sight of what was happening there, his fists balling at his sides, and his legs taking him forward immediately.

Sakura was there, laying on the ground, surrounded by other children her age or older, at least a dozen of them. They were standing around her, with the explicit purpose of bullying and harrowing her. They seemed to be either attacking her or riling up the ones doing the attacking.

"What a freak you are." One called out to the girl on the ground. "With your stupid purple hair."

"She never says anything you know? She must be mute."

"Nah, just dumb I think. She never reacts to anything either after all. Probably never understands what's happening around her."

Sakura didn't say a word. Not reacting to the increasingly cruel taunts, seemingly ignoring what the other children were doing and saying. She remained on the ground, eyes once again empty and hopeless, appearing resigned to her fate.

"She's not even reacting to this, she's boring."

"Well, try kicking her then."

"No, I'll throw some mud at her face."

Preparing to do as he had said, the boy picked up some mud from the ground. Before he could complete his self-appointed task however, he felt a hand wrap around his wrist. The next moment the hand twisted, forcing him to drop the mud and causing him no small amount of pain, making him cry out in unbearable agony.

The boy looked up in a pain-induced rage, wanting to yell at the one responsible.

Upon seeing this person however, he instantly lost all of his nerve, he almost pissed himself even. Glaring at him with anger-filled golden eyes was a red-haired boy, whose rage was almost palpable.

"What are you doing?" The bully attempted to bluster, having gathered enough courage to at least try to be tough. "I'll get you, you idiot." The boy turned to his accomplices. "Why are you just standing there? Get this guy!"

At those words, the other children tried to attack Shirou together. Fortunately for him though, Kiritsugu had taught him how to handle multiple opponents at once. As such, he was able to punch, kick and shove his way out of the encirclement to stand in front of Sakura, albeit with plenty of bruises gained from the short scuffle.

"Leave her alone!" He growled. "This is your only warning." He lifted his fists, idly noticing the black eyes and bleeding noses he had already given the bullies.

As it turned out, his show of force and subsequent warning were enough to scare away the cowards before him, who, after a few looks shared between them, ran out of the park in a panic.

"This guy's crazy."

"Mommy"

"Let's get out of here."

' _Cowards._ ' Shirou thought, before turning towards the girl lying on the ground, who was looking at him with wide, surprised eyes. He immediately offered his hand to her to help her up. She shouldn't remain on the ground like that, she might get dirty.

Sakura stared at his hand with a confused expression on her face, as if she didn't understand what it meant or what she was supposed to do with it.

"Hey Sakura." He said, voice full with concern. "Are you okay? Do you need to go to a doctor?"

He did not want to say it out loud for now, but her silence worried him. What had those bullies done to her? Did she have a concussion perhaps? Or was something else wrong with her?

Sakura started at his questions, blinking a few times, before accepting his offered hand and standing up with his help. Still feeling his worried eyes on her, she was quick to stutter out a reassurance.

"N-no, I'm fine Emiya-san." She quickly said, looking down shyly. "Thank you for helping me. Are you okay though? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No, no, I'm fine." Shirou proclaimed. "There's no need to worry about me, you should look after yourself. Really, what were those guys thinking, picking on a nice girl like you? If they ever bother you again, tell me, okay? I'll handle them."

Sakura, who had started blushing again for some reason, looked up in concern at his words. "But they'll hurt you again." She whispered.

Shirou blinked, and then smiled. "You're kidding right? I got them much better than they got me. Besides, these don't hurt at all." He assured her, pounding himself on the chest once and immediately regretting it. "Okay, maybe it hurts just a little bit."

He laughed sheepishly, Sakura laughing along with him after a few moments.

' _Her laugh is really nice, like little bells ringing.'_ The thought came unbidden to Shirou's mind. A slight smile came to his face as well as he listened. She stopped laughing after a while though, a shocked expression coming to her face, as if she was not used at all to expressing any kind of joy.

Seeing Sakura was still bruised from being bullied by those kids, Shirou decided to take her to his home to treat her. He could not be certain she would receive any help at the foul manor, so he would have to aid her himself. After a quick explanation of his intentions, he took her hand and rapidly started walking to his home, Sakura's gaze not wavering from him all the while.

Kiritsugu was gone for the afternoon, so after they'd arrived at the Emiya-Estate, Shirou took it upon himself to nurse her back to health, with bandages, paper towels and tea.

Taiga arrived some time later, taking one look at him and Sakura before demanding two explanations, one from Shirou about why he was taking girls home when he wasn't even in puberty yet, and one from Sakura about what her devious plans were with Taiga's cute little brother.

After he had worked down his blush, Shirou told her about Sakura being bullied and him saving her, eliciting both an angry reaction from Taiga about the bullying and a full-blown laugh at her 'gallant' Shirou coming to Sakura's rescue.

When Kiritsugu arrived, he too seemed amused by the story. His smile briefly disappeared upon hearing Sakura's last name, but he didn't address the issue just yet, instead already preparing to teach Shirou a bit about both Magus-politics in general and prominent families he should watch out for in particular. But that could wait until Sakura had gone home.

When evening fell, Shirou invited Sakura to stay for dinner, which she politely declined, as her grandfather had told her she had to get home before dark.

Taiga decided to walk her home, as Kiritsugu was sick and Shirou was too young yet.

"Okay Sakura-chan, say goodbye to Shirou-chan." She said.

Sakura did just that, giving a polite bow to him.

Shirou smiled at that and bowed back, but then, before he could get back up, Sakura swiftly stepped forwards and quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek. With a whispered "Thank you for today" she rushed out of the house.

Both Taiga and Kiritsugu laughed at Shirou, who was staring after Sakura with a blank expression on his face. Still laughing, Taiga walked away. Kiritsugu then stopped his laughter after a while. He turned towards Shirou, who had not moved from his spot.

"So Shirou, going around saving damsels in distress, are we? I must say, you really don't waste any time with your goals." His eyes then softened, as he placed a hand on Shirou's shoulder. "I am proud of you, my son."

Having said that, he steered a still unresponsive Shirou back to the living room, where he put Shirou in a seat and sat down himself as well.

"Now then Shirou, I had wanted to do this for a while now and you have given me a perfect opening today. I believe it is time to teach you about the politics of the Moonlit World…"

* * *

 **Several years later**

Shirou watched his father's coffin as it was lowered into the ground with tears in his eyes. Next to him stood Taiga and Sakura, both with expressions of mourning. He was happy with Sakura's presence, as she had not been sure if she could make it up until the very last moment, but she had found the time to be here. The plum-haired girl had become a good friend of his over the years, coming over as often as she could. As such, she too had come to look up to Kiritsugu and thus was saddened by his death.

Taiga was silent, very unusual for the normally so active woman. She hadn't said a word since the funeral had started, instead just softly crying. Old man Raiga stood next to her, his hand placed on her back in an attempt at comforting her.

Shirou was mournful as well of course, but he knew Kiritsugu was in a better place now, wherever that was. With a small, teary eyed smile he thought back to the last conversation Kiritsugu and he had had, only the night before.

* * *

 _Father and son were sitting outside on the patio of their house, together watching the night sky filled with stars._

 _Kiritsugu was perfectly content to sit like that, his smile a peaceful one. Shirou was trying to be calm and collected as well, but a nagging feeling of distress was disturbing any attempt at inner peace. Strangely enough, the feeling seemed to be centered on his father. Something was not right tonight, not right at all._

 _Gathering his courage, Shirou decided to speak up. "Father, is there something wrong with you?"_

 _Kiritsugu opened his eyes and gave Shirou a confused look, both because of the question and because Shirou had been so unusually formal with him. Saying 'father' instead of 'dad'._

 _"Something wrong? Why would you think that?"_

" _It is just a… feeling that I have, I don't know why."_

 _His father seemed to scrutinize him for a moment, as if searching for something. Shirou held his gaze, trying to convey his worries through his stare. After a few moments, his dad turned away again._

" _How is your training coming along?" Was the question he got in response._

 _Caught flatfooted, Shirou could only respond honestly, that it was going well. He had trained with Taiga, done the exercises that Kiritsugu had given him, and had studied more for his Magecraft. He had been doing a lot of volunteer work in the city and had helped anyone who needed it, as long as it was within his capabilities._

" _Good, you're making good progress." Kiritsugu praised him, a small smile on his face. That smile however fell after a couple of seconds._

 _He looked up again then, sighing deeply. "I won't live through the night, my son. It is matter of hours, maybe minutes now, before I die."_

 _Shirou had known his father would soon die. He knew of the curse the man was suffering from, but to hear it was now so close… He couldn't stop the tears from flowing out of his eyes, as his shoulders shook with repressed sobs._

" _Come now Shirou. "Kiritsugu said, putting his hands on Shirou's shoulders. "Don't cry for this old man, but rather listen to what he has to tell you in his last hours on Earth._

 _You have become a great man, my son, and I have no doubt you can become a hero if you stay on this path. But I must warn you as well. Don't forget yourself in the future. You are important too, and if not to yourself at the moment, then to me, to Taiga, to Sakura. Remember to save yourself, just as you would save others._

 _And of course, as a last selfish request, I ask you to not forget your sister."_

 _Shirou did not understand his father's words._

 _Oh, he did understand the part about Illyasviel well enough, he would forever work to save her of course. Rather he did not understand why he would have to save himself of all people. He had already been saved, so surely, it was his turn to save others now?_

 _Not wanting to disappoint his father though, he agreed, promising to look out for himself as well. Even though he knew he would not, not really._

 _Kiritsugu smiled though and told him to come sit in the chair next to him. Shirou had taken place there, and father and son had talked throughout the night. By the time the morning came, Emiya Kiritsugu had died, a true smile on his face._

* * *

Now looking at his father's coffin again, Shirou wondered about that smile. He had only seen his father smile like that once before, when he had pulled Shirou out of the fire. A smile that spoke of Salvation, of the contentment that every human longed for.

Had his father been saved? Or had Kiritsugu saved someone else? Shirou did not know and it was driving him crazy. Was this something only adults could understand? Because if so, Shirou hoped he could learn it fast. He would not be an effective hero if he did not even know how to save people.

' _I swear to you dad, like I did before. I will become a hero. I will save people, help people, bring happiness to people. And one day, I will learn why you smiled like that.'_

* * *

Several months had passed since Kiritsugu's death and not much of note had happened in that time. Fujimura Raiga had taken custody of Shirou and had delegated the task of checking up on him (read: Mooching off him) to Taiga. Shirou had kept up kendo-practice and had improved quite a bit. He had also taken up archery, but only in private, not joining any clubs or anything. He turned out to be a natural at it, never once missing the bull's eye.

Sakura had kept coming around too. She spent her days at his house as often as she could, being there at or even before breakfast in the morning and only leaving after dinner in the evening. Really, she was such a good friend. He hoped he wasn't cutting too much into her family-time though.

...

Reconsidering that, he did in fact hope that it cut into her family-time, as much as possible even. Her grandfather, one Matou Zouken, was a creepy bastard. Just looking at him made Shirou almost physically unwell. He felt completely unnatural and smelled like corpses and worms. It had prompted him to invite Sakura over even more often, something the girl herself was only all too happy with.

It was for the best that Sakura hung around at his house most of the time, staying away from that man as much as possible.

She did skip entire days every so often. Apparently, her grandfather had tasks for her on those days. What that meant, Shirou did not know, but perhaps it was something Magecraft-related? The Matou were an old family of Magi after all. What she could be doing was still a mystery to him however, as the members of the Matou-clan had lost their capability of magic generations ago. He could only hope it was something easy.

On an unrelated note, he was also doing rather well at school as well. Highschool was now only half a year away, and Shirou had already picked the school he wanted to attend: Homurahara High School. His marks were more than adequate, so he didn't expect any trouble there whatsoever. The school even had an archery club, making it even more appealing to Shirou.

Today had been the last day of school before a two-week holiday, meaning he would have more time for training during those two weeks. Maybe he could look into martial arts, it was high time he learned some hand-to-hand combat.

' _It all seems to be going rather well.'_ Shirou mused lightly, as he walked down the street on his way to the Ryuudou temple, where his father laid buried.

Night was falling, the sun slowly disappearing behind the horizon. After having had dinner, both Sakura and Taiga had left early, stating they had tasks left to do at their respective homes. As such, Shirou had a free evening. One he was planning to spend at his father's grave and in the forest next to the city, in order to clear his head.

On his way to the temple, his path crossed that of a certain black-haired, twin-tailed girl, wearing a red shirt and a black skirt.

With all of his father's lessons about politics and Magus-families, there was no way Shirou would not have recognized the Second Owner of the lands herself: Tohsaka Rin.

He wasn't overly worried though, the two of them had crossed paths before and she had never once stopped him to confront him as a Magus.

He supposed that made sense, as he had always made sure not to perform any Thaumaturgy when anywhere near her. He even kept his Circuits on completely non-active if she was around, so no trace of his Prana could ever make its way to her. As such, she didn't have any reason to believe him to be a Magus. She didn't even know him at all really, and no doubt forgot all about him after she had lost sight of him.

As they passed each other, Shirou smiled and gave a polite nod to her. Seeing her do the same, the nod that was, not the smile, he continued his walk. Completely missing Rin taking a glance over her shoulder to look at his back.

About an hour later, Shirou had visited his father's grave in the temple, also having taken the time to visit his potential new friend, Ryuudou Issei, the son of the owner of said temple. It had been peaceful as ever in there, not much of note happening, according to Issei himself at least. Which was perfectly fine to Shirou.

Shirou's path then led him into the forest. The sun had set and Shirou was walking through the dark. No lights were present, either on himself or coming from an outward source.

It did not bother him much. He didn't sense or smell anything strange, so there was no reason to be afraid. He knew what was really out there after all, so simple shadows did not scare him in the slightest, while muggers and their ilk would find themselves unpleasantly surprised should they try to attack him.

All in all, the sphere in the woods could only be called peaceful and calm. Only the slight sounds of nature audible, with sometimes the roaring of a car far away.

'BOOM!'

Thunder suddenly sounded overhead, forks of lightning accompanying it.

Shirou looked up in surprise. To his astonishment, he saw deep dark clouds gathering overhead, no doubt building up to a thunderstorm of epic proportions.

There had been absolutely no forecast about this storm. Not on the news and not in real life. It had been a very pleasant day, no too hot, not too cold, with a clear sky during the entirety of the day. For these deep dark clouds to gather so quickly and suddenly…

' **BOOM'**

Thunder sounded again, even louder than the previous time. Bright flashes of lightning again lighting up the sky, while thunder roared at the earth below.

The pattern of the lightning seemed weird though. It didn't strike at the ground, rather it seemed focused on a point in the sky.

That was not normal at all. Lightning was supposed to find the easiest and tallest place to strike, not be aimed upwards to nothing.

Shirou squinted, trying to see what it was that was drawing in the lightning. His view was completely blocked by the clouds though, the target remaining invisible to him.

Shirou decided to forget it for now, and instead make his way home immediately. Standing outside, in a forest no less, during a thunderstorm was exceedingly foolish. Every child knew that. He had never been hit by lightning before, and even with his sense of self-preservation being as eroded as it was, he wanted to keep it that way.

Starting off with a rapid pace, he soon started running when he realised the thunderclouds were moving towards him. He had to find shelter right away. Fortunately, he had always seemed stronger during storms of any kind.

His pace was swifter, his strength seemed to double, thinking was easier, and his reflexes and area-awareness became top notch. He could feel it now too, the energy of the storm, empowering him beyond his normal limits. He ran, faster than any other human…

Then he stopped dead.

Emiya Shirou stood frozen in place.

For he had smelled a scent.

Him smelling things was not like a normal person catching a scent. Shirou did not only smell regular scents that any human could pick up on, he could smell magic.

Kiritsugu had often compared him to a bloodhound, so good was he at finding and pinpointing magic with only his nose. Even the faintest traces he could smell, from up to a hundred yards away. He was also able to discern certain types of magic with his nose. Fire-magic smelt like fire and ash, Bounded fields often smelt like a combination of the purpose and their maker, runes smelt old and powerful, with an undertone of dusty tomes.

A very useful ability, one that would come in very handy along the line. In his path to be a hero, there was no doubt that he would encounter many aspects of the Moonlit World.

It was also this ability that made him stand still in the middle of a forest during a thunderstorm. For he had smelled magic. Clearer than ever before.

It was the smell of ozone, of lightning. More potent and powerful than any scent he had ever caught before. Even Tohsaka-san did not smell this powerful, not even close.

Worse, Shirou was fairly certain that what he was smelling was only a fraction of the true power that whatever this was possessed. By all accounts, he should run, but his instincts as a hero spurred him on to at least check it out.

His gaze went thus skywards again, towards the cluster of thunderclouds, as he was certain the scent was coming from that direction. He squinted again, trying to see clearer…

Almost as if on cue, the clouds then parted, and something came through, falling down fast, _aimed right at Shirou._

He immediately went out of the way of the falling projectile, running to the sides. Blessedly, the thing falling did not adjust its course, instead remaining focused on where he had been standing before.

From a safe distance away, the redhead watched the thing come down from the sky. It fell lower, and lower, and lower, until…

'BOOM'

With the loudest sound thus far, the thing hit the ground with the force of an Earthquake. It did not stop right away, but skid on instead along the forest ground, dragging out a deep ditch as it did so. Eventually coming to a stop several dozen yards further, coincidentally (or not) very close to Shirou's position.

From his spot, Shirou could not see what the mysterious object was, with several trees blocking his sight. After internally debating for a while, and spurred on by his hero-instincts again, he decided to go and see what it was exactly.

' _A hero must not feel fear for the unknown, rather he must go forth and face it.'_ He thought to himself, slowly approaching ground zero.

It did not take him long to find the thing, as he followed some kind of trail, in the form of scents, feelings, and tastes. He could not pinpoint just what it was, but he would guess it was either a Phantasmal Beast, or a Mystic Code of great power.

Once he reached the object however, he saw to his astonishment that it turned out to be a simple hammer, albeit a strange one.

It looked like an oversized hobbyist-tool, with a simple prismatic form, about as big as a football, with a handle about as long as his forearm, maybe slightly longer. It had a strap hanging from the tip and it seemed to be made from some kind of pristine stone, that glowed in the dark.

Shirou then noticed the inscription on the hammer's side. He recognized the signs as Runes, Norse Runes to be precise. Fairly powerful ones too, if the way they were glowing was any indication. Shirou had learned a few Norse Runes from Kiritsugu. His meager knowledge was not enough to translate the text on the hammer however, so he drew a blank as to what was said.

What he did know though, was that this weapon was definitely magical. If the lightning was not enough to prove it, the smells certainly were.

' _Yup, Ozone. That's the thing I was smelling.'_ Shirou confirmed for himself.

He knew he would have to remove the hammer from this place. He did not think anyone would have noticed its descend or its arrival, despite how loud it was, but if he left the thing here, people would find it.

Shirou did not want to contemplate what would happen if an ordinary person would find such a powerful magic weapon.

The very best case would be that nothing would happen at all, with the hammer being put in a storage somewhere and then forgotten. The bad case however would be instant destruction for the poor person who picked it up, as magical weapons could be very volatile. The absolute worst case would be the Clocktower finding out about the appearance of the weapon and then purging the city to both erase all traces of it and to kill the one who was leaving mystical weapons just lying around.

No, he would have to take the hammer with him. Just pick it up and take it home for now. He could sort it all out tomorrow, maybe leave it behind at Tohsaka's place. She would know what to do with strange hammers, and from what he'd seen and heard of her, he was pretty sure he could trust her enough not to do any foolish or potentially damaging things with it.

With that in mind, Shirou moved towards the hammer, quickly crossing the distance while climbing through the large trench now etched into the landscape. He walked up to the weapon, absently noting that, no matter which direction he went in or what position he took, the hammer's handle always seemed to be pointed at him.

As he approached, the aura surrounding the thing became noticeably stronger, and not just to his own senses. Both the power and the smell the hammer was exuding became much more potent the more he crossed the distance. This should have been a bad sign, but Shirou somehow knew that it wasn't, not to him personally at least. In fact, he could have sworn the power had an exited tinge to it.

Shirou was completely focused on his objective, completely missing how the wind had stilled, how the clouds were frozen in place and how the storm seemed to be holding its breath. It seemed to be waiting for something.

He finally reached the weapon, the aura of it now so heavy it almost forced him to his knees. Shirou persisted however, as he needed to remove this weapon in order to help people. Besides, it was nothing compared to the fire.

He bend down and reached out to grab the hammer, his fingers touching the handle...

Only to jump back in shock as he saw the Runes on the side of the hammer shift as soon as he touched it.

Despite him letting go though, the Runes did not stop shifting. They altered themselves completely, until they had changed into perfectly readable Kanji.

' _Whosoever lifts this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the Power of Thor.'_

Shirou's mind blanked. He could only stare at the weapon with a dumbfounded expression. No single sound able to leave his lips.

For who had never heard of Thor? The God of Thunder, lightning, storms, strength, fertility and, something that had always puzzled Shirou, oak trees. One of the most famous gods on Earth. The son of Odin and Fjord, the Protector of Mankind. The wielder of…

' _Mjolnir?'_

' _No, it can't be, that's impossible.'_

Shirou, being a practitioner of Magecraft, had more knowledge about gods and their weapons than most people had. He had learned from his father and from several books that Thor had wielded Mjolnir, the greatest weapon of Norse Mythology.

Granted, most people knew that, but Shirou had the added advantages of knowing what Thor looked like through drawings from Norse Mages and knowing actual rituals to call upon him. He also knew for certain that Thor had really existed.

But the Mjolnir Thor had once wielded was as big as a four-person couch, his father had told him. And that was in its locked mortal form. In its divine form, it was just a mass of lightning and destruction. How could this little weapon be that Mjolnir?

And that was without even taking into consideration that the Age of Gods was over. Mjolnir should not be here. Thor was gone, his hammer should be too.

And even if it wasn't so, Godly power, or godhood itself, could not be transferred through weapons. Perseus had not become a god when he put on Hermes' sandals. Hell, Mjolnir itself had been taken once, by a Stonegiant, who certainly hadn't become a god as a result.

Clearly this was just a joke, or a boast from an overly arrogant Magus. It didn't change anything about this situation. He had to take the weapon away. If people were to stumble upon it, they could get hurt. Who knew what this weapon was capable of, even if it _clearly_ wasn't divine.

As such, Shirou reached for the hammer again, once more grabbing its handle, now with a tighter grip. Ignoring how the text on the side seemed to glow and the hammer seemed to vibrate from the moment he touched it, he braced himself, and _pulled…_

'BOOM'

The storm had now gotten its signal to begin again, grander and louder than before. Thunder once again shook the sky, lighting flashing around in all directions. It was just one thunderclap, but it was the loudest one until now, the loudest one to have ever sounded in this city. All over town, important people noticed the veritable explosion of power, each person having their own reactions to it.

In a church, the only church of the city, a certain priest paused in his preparations of the morning's sermons. He had heard the clap and seen the flashes. His heart, the one given to him by the grail, seemed to have paused for a moment when the ruckus occurred.

It was beating just fine now however, so the priest put it out of his head. It must have been his imagination.

In the same church, a blond-haired, red-eyed King also paused in his actions. He too had heard the thunder, louder than ever before. Maybe even louder than the thunder from the Rider from the Fourth War.

He huffed, faintly amused by Nature outdoing that oafish fool. He returned to sipping his wine, not seeing the need of investigating further. Still, he had a feeling suddenly, one he had not experienced since his time in Uruk. A feeling of being watched, by those above.

In a stately manor, a black-haired girl started in shock from the sudden crash.

"Stupid thunder." She muttered. "I am trying to concentrate here."

Rin had indeed been busy. Not with schoolwork of course, she had just started the two-week holiday. No, she had been trying to practice her Magecraft. 'Trying' being the keyword here. Because for all that Rin tried to focus on her task, she kept straying off into daydreams.

Daydreams of red and gold.

Squeaking in embarrassment at finding herself thinking such thoughts, she completely forgot about the Thunderclap that had occurred.

In a decidedly less stately manor, in a basement even more decrepit than the house itself, an old worm lifted his head to stare at the ceiling.

"We might be getting a storm tonight." He remarked to his adopted granddaughter, who was currently undergoing her treatment. "Not really a good time to be outside."

Despite seeming at ease though, Zouken could not suppress a twinge of worry. That clap, and the lightning going with it, had broken the connection between him and his worms. It had been only for the shortest of moments, and everything seemed fine now, but it was enough to raise his hackles. He hoped such a thing would not occur again. He did not like it at all.

Matou Sakura was laying in her grandfather's wormpit, being constantly violated by the disgusting creatures around her. It was not a new experience for her, rather it had been going on ever since she had been adopted into the Matou family.

Her life was definitely terrible. Terrible to such a degree that there would have been no reason for Sakura to keep living, if it hadn't been for one ray of light she had found years ago. Or rather, the ray of light that had found her.

' _Senpai.'_

Her thoughts remained on the person who had taken her in, who had helped her, protected her. Even if she could never be with him, defiled as she was, she could as least fantasise, and gain strength from his presence, even if he was not there.

Huh, her grandfather was talking?

She frowned. He almost never talked during one of the so called trainings he put her through. She listened in to what he had to say, and her frown deepened.

Especially not about something as mundane as the weather. Matou Zouken did not waste words like that. He had always told her that wasting time talking was a sin.

It was strange though. Sakura could have sworn that she had heard nervousness in her grandfather's voice when he had spoken. But that was impossible, right? What would ever make a monster like him nervous?

Further away, much further, an old vampire, the one possessing the Second Magic, calmly moved on with his life and whiles. He had noticed nothing, nor had any other of his many versions across the dimensions, for a veil had been lifted in front of his many eyes.

At the same time, the message echoed through the Omniverse.

The Power of Thor, and Mjolnir along with it, had found a new wielder. Soon, a new protector would rise.

Everywhere, any being powerful enough to notice looked up in surprise, and sometimes jealousy, as the message came.

In a place outside the Omniverse, in the timeless halls, the Creator sat, a smile on his face.

And reality rejoiced,

 _For a God had been reborn, and a new hero had risen._

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **Cool, Shirou has the hammer now.**

 **This Shirou is a bit different from Canon-Shirou, which was probably made clear enough in this chapter. How he deviates from canon, you'll have to see for yourself.**

 **I introduced some characters here, they will be of importance in the rest of the story as well. You would do well to remember them.**

 **Be aware that the plotline of the Grail War won't start for quite a while yet. I will have Shirou build up his power and reputation first.**

 **Have a nice day all of you and sorry for the wait.**

 **Edited later for better flow and choice of words.**


	4. The Two Brothers

**A/N:**

 **Alright, a fair warning to everyone. Many people have let me know that they dislike this chapter. That's fine and everything, I can even understand it to a degree, but it still provides information that I would have put into an author's note otherwise.**

 **It contains a lot of information that is handed to you right away, in the form of shameless fourth wall-breaking. But like I said, these were matters I was getting a lot of questions about, and I wanted to answer them, but not in a boring note at the end. So this chapter was born as a result.**

 **You are of course not required to read it. If you dislike Fourth-Wall-breaking and a lot of telling instead of showing, feel free to skip this chapter. I can't guarantee though that you'll understand everything from this chapter on in the story.**

 **This note was added to the chapter because people complained about it, mainly its style, but I don't want to remove it. Maybe I can rewrite it sometime, when my writing-skills have improved, or when someone has a better idea of presenting all this information, but no guarantees.**

 **So hereby the warning: INFODUMP AHEAD!**

 **Thank you for your attention. Please enjoy your reading of this chapter, or the next.**

* * *

 **The two brothers**

The Omniverse was a crazy, mindboggling place. It held an infinite number of worlds, verses, dimensions, realms and more. Some of the dimensions were very much alike, with only mere details being different. Other verses were so completely unlike each other that one would think they belonged in different realities altogether. Yet for all of its immeasurable vastness, the Omniverse had a distinct shape. It was roughly shaped like a sphere.

In the middle of said sphere, in the heart of creation, laid a castle. Not a castle as you would see on Earth though. No, this castle, this place of residence, was far greater than anything on Earth or anywhere else in the Omniverse.

The very center of reality, this 'building' was splendour and grandness. Far beyond anything a mortal could ever understand or even perceive. Even Gods that reigned supreme in their own universes would find themselves tiny and insignificant compared to the Heart.

It was here, at the birthplace of the current reality, that a three-faced golden man sat. He was seated on a throne, feet on the ground and arms on the armrests. He was shaped like a human, barring the previously mentioned three faces and golden colour. His size was that of a mountain, but in the gigantic castle, he seemed like a normal man in proportion.

This was the Living Tribunal. One of the two first beings created by the One-Above-All. He was subsequently also one of the two most powerful beings of the Omniverse. He was so close to omnipotent that no being below multiversal level could ever understand or perceive the difference between his power and true Omnipotence. Another trait he shared with his insufferable brother.

His three faces represented three concepts. The front face, the one that spoke to others the most, was Equity. The fully hooded face on the right was Necessity and the partially hooded face on the left was Just Revenge. The three faces had to agree on all matters before the Living Tribunal would act. Fortunately, the discussions seldom lasted long.

He was the Guardian of reality, the spill that kept it all going. He had been charged with maintaining the Balance of All. The Balance of All was, as its name said, the delicate balance of the Omniverse. It was what made it possible for creation to keep existing. It was a scale for many things; Power, Life, Death, Space, Time and more. Everything had to be measured and controlled, lest the consequences be disastrous.

Being the Living Tribunal was a busy existence. He was billions, if not trillions of years old and had had his work cut out for him on every single day of all those years.

From Universes obtaining more power than they had the rights to, to species of sentient and non-sentient beings alike becoming too advanced and battle-crazy for their own good, and thus wiping out entire dimensions if he did not stop them.

There were Elder beings that should have died in previous universes that had to be culled, most famously the First Armament. Somewhere else a chain reaction had started in a star, which would result in a supernova and the subsequent destruction of a planet that still had a role to play in the big scheme of things.

And all of that had occurred during only the previous second, with hundreds of disasters happening alongside them. He alone had to stop it all from happening. All by himself, with nothing but his own power.

Not that such things mattered to him. He was always active, never once closing his eyes. He did not need sleep, rest or sustainment. He was eternal and very close to infallible. Every universe currently existing had a copy of him in it, and every one of those copies, even all put together, were still only a meager manifestation of his true power.

He was the Living Tribunal, the oldest. Nothing would stop him from carrying out his duty. Nothing _could_ stop him, nothing could impede him. In his task, no one could stand in his way…

"Hello brother-dear!"

Except one.

His thoughts interrupted, the Living Tribunal looked up towards the only being that could in fact hinder him, the only being as powerful and old as he. His 'dear' brother: The Beyonder.

"Greetings yourself, brother." The front face, Equity, responded calmly. "I take it you know why I have summoned you here?"

His brother's grin widened. It was a curious thing, that grin. The Beyonder had worn it ever since that day two billion years after they were both created, when he saw the first mortal he had ever met, an Archetopian Mamakklie, grin at someone. Ever since then, his brother grinned whenever he was in a form that allowed grinning. When asked about it, he replied that he just liked it. Grinning seemed to make him happy.

The grin was by no means always present on his face though. When faced with upsetting matters, it slipped away easily, sometimes for entire centuries if the case was dire enough, such as the time he had been forced to erase an innocent universe.

It did always spring back at some point or another, however, when the Beyonder had overcome his inner turmoil and had found light in his life again.

It was a glaring difference between the brothers. Whereas the Living Tribunal was made to be the perfect judge, objective, omniscient, and mostly emotionless, the Beyonder was created as a force of chaos. Always making trouble for everyone everywhere, with no end to his mischief.

The Beyonder often made friends with whomever he considered interesting, and would mourn when those beings passed away.

The latest of those beings happening to be the Odinson himself.

The Living Tribunal had felt and seen the demise of Thor, and he had to admit that even he felt sadness and grief at the Asgardian's passing. He did not let it impede him, but he did feel it.

He was well-aware of the plan their boss had conceived, to pass on the Skyfather's power to a worthy wielder as soon as possible. The Living Tribunal had not been informed beforehand as to who this new wielder was supposed to be, and had thus followed Mjolnir until it had arrived at its destination. This new wielder was now revealed to be Emiya Shirou. It was an interesting choice, but the Living Tribunal approved of it.

Still, it was because of matters surrounding the new god of thunder that he had called his brother to appear before him. The Living Tribunal and the Beyonder had agreed with each other not to interfere with Mjolnir's process of choosing, even going so far as to shroud their vision from whom would be chosen. Even though they were both close to omniscient, they did not allow themselves to know who the hammer would go to before it had already arrived.

Yet his brother had now directly interfered, going against their agreements, and had placed a cloak and shield around the Emiya. The Living Tribunal had a good idea as to why his brother had done so, but still thought it prudent to summon him to the Heart to explain himself. If he had a good reason, then all would be forgiven. If he did not, then the golden being would have to give his sibling the cold shoulder for a while.

"Of course." His brother said, bringing the Living Tribunal's attention back to him. "I knew you'd call me, I already anticipated that from the moment I reached out to little Shirou to aid him for a bit."

The Living Tribunal leaned forward at that.

"Good. Then you most likely have a good cause for your actions, or at least an excuse prepared." He rumbled, hoping the Beyonder did in fact have an excuse. "What exactly did you do? I have not looked through the cloak yet because I wanted to give you a chance to explain, so please take that chance and tell me what you wished to achieve with the cloak and the warning."

"You could have looked through the cloak, brother." The Beyonder replied carelessly, waving a hand in a throw-away motion. "There's nothing there that I wanted to keep a secret from you. The cloak and the warning were to drive away any being that might want to claim Mjolnir for itself. Now that Thor is dead, many creatures, foolish creatures, will try to obtain his power. I merely scared them away for now."

"Why though? Should the new wielder not be able to take care of any challengers himself?"

"Maybe, but I reasoned that giving him more time to get acquainted with Mjolnir would be better for his growth than making him fight blustering fools from other universes right away. There are already plenty of those on his planet, let him deal with those first, before forcing him to fight interdimensional threats."

The Living Tribunal frowned, pondering this over. He could see what his brother was going for here and it wasn't like he disagreed with the sentiment. It was perhaps indeed wiser to let Emiya Shirou be for now, and to let the protections his brother had raised remain in place.

"Very well." He intoned. "But be aware that as soon as he is done in his own universe, we will take him to serve the Omniverse at large. That means you will have to remove your spells. Letting challengers come to him is the better option."

"If he agrees to it." The Beyonder said, a serious look entering his eyes, even as the grin remained in place.

"Is there any doubt he will agree to aid and protect the Omniverse?"

"No, but remember it is important to ask people for their opinions when you are planning on doing something that involves them. We can't just rip him away, declare him a hero and then throw him out into the Omniverse. You know that."

The Living Tribunal nodded, he did indeed know that.

He then turned around, looked towards Emiya Shirou and pierced the veil around him. Now both the Beyonder and The Living Tribunal could see through it, but any other being not from the Nasu-Verse would find nothing there.

The matter now settled, he leaned back in his seat, dismissing his brother from his presence. It was time for him to go back to managing the Omniverse. The task he was created for.

One could wonder at this moment as to why heroes would be needed to protect reality when the Living Tribunal was already on the case. The reason for that was relatively simple; In the grand plan of the One-Above-All, it had to be mortals who dealt with mortal matters. The three-headed being could indeed deal with all threats, but some, or actually, most, threats were beneath him. They did not warrant his attention, like a mosquito did not warrant a nuclear bomb.

Heroes, like Thor, like Iron Man, like Doctor Strange, were needed to deal with the lower levels of threats. Like supervillains, meteors and comets coming for planets that didn't have a role to play anymore and small wars between small factions, like, only a thousand planets participating. They protected that part of the Omniverse that barely had a role in the big scheme and as such were not very well protected by him.

"Heheheh"

Looking back, thhe Living Tribunal saw his brother still standing in the same place as befeore. Despite the dismissal, it did not seem like the Beyonder wanted to leave yet. In fact, he walked up to the Living Tribunal himself, conjured his own throne, and took place. After he sat down, he started talking to the Judge on the Throne.

"So Shirou-chan now has the hammer, hah? Good, very good. I have no doubt he will do great things with it. He can become a real hero now much sooner. The powers and abilities he has now will see to that."

The Living Tribunal turned his head back to the Beyonder. "Yes, I know that."

"He will no longer be a human of course. Thor sent his essence as Skyfather along with Mjolnir, so Shirou will eventually become a Skyfather as well. Fortunately, it's close enough to human for normal interaction and for another kinds of, less innocent, activities to still take place. He is not a Skyfather yet of course, but as of now, he is no longer human either, he's slowly turning into a Marvel Asgardian, going from an ordinary one to a royal one and further, until he can go the full distance to become a Skyfather."

The Living Tribunal now narrowed the eyes of the face of Equity. "He was no human even before Mjolnir came to him. The Fire, Angra Mainyu, Avalon, and the Boss saw to that. But besides that, I agree. Already he is more than a human. Even if he were to put the hammer away at this very moment he'd remain more powerful than he was before. Those Asgardian are a superior species after all. But again, I knew all that already."

"Naturally. They are much older and much further evolved, not to mention that they were engineered to be the most powerful beings they could be. They wouldn't be able to protect the nine realms if they were any less than the best." The Beyonder continued.

"This also greatly helps with that Goddess Gaia." The grinning being then said. "Now that Shirou's no longer human, she, as well as Primate Murder and those space-vampires, will find him rather difficult to deal with. It helps that Thor, and now Shirou by default, is the son of Marvel's Gaia. It will grant him immunity to the effects she normally has humans under. Not right away of course, that too will develop slowly, as over time Shirou-chan will become more and more like Thor, but he will soon find that his Magecraft, especially the kind he gets from Mjolnir, will be a lot easier to handle."

Now even the faces of Necessity and Just Revenge showed confusion as the Beyonder kept talking on. Still, the Living Tribunal answered.

"Yes, that will help him greatly, and even if it didn't, Shirou Emiya has been chosen for this program and he must see it to its end. Such has been decreed by both us and the Boss. No matter whether he is Gaia's son or not, she will not overly hinder him, lest we destroy her consciousness and simply anchor her Reality Marble to her Earth with our own power."

Those ominous words said, the Living Tribunal leaned forward again, intending to address his building confusion. He brought his face close to the Beyonder's, and spoke.

"And again, both you and I knew that already. Why do you continue to speak about it? Why do you question me on these matters? We decided what to do well before this meeting and we can both see for ourselves what is happening with Emiya. Why do you seek so much confirmation now when it is unneeded?"

The Beyonder looked at him with surprised eyes, and then laughed loudly. "Forgive me brother, it was not my intention to cause you grief. I merely wanted to help a bit."

This did not clear the Living Tribunal's confusion. "Who do you wish to help then, if not ourselves, brother?"

Now the grin became face-splitting. "Who? The readers of course."

* * *

The Beyonder almost burst into laughter at his brother's perplexed face. No doubt the grouch did not see that coming. It was hilarious, really. Totally worth the wait.

His brother now seemed to come out of his confusion, and then promptly started glaring again. "The readers? Truly brother, ever since you met that hero Deadpool your fourth wall-breaking has been getting wildly out of hand. Why must you do this so blatantly?"

The Beyonder momentarily thought back of Deadpool, that guy had always had such great ideas, before responding. "Well, you see, I wanted to help the author a bit."

"And why did you deem that necessary?"

"Because there was confusion about his story apparently. Some things needed to be cleared up, so I decided to make an interlude you know. Just a bit of kindness."

The Living Tribunal bristled. "He is the author. He should be capable of conveying his intentions and story by himself, without our help."

"That's really harsh. A little bit of help has never hurt anyone. Just clearing up a few matters, such as Shirou slowly becoming an Asgardian, Gaia losing her power over him and his Magecraft, him becoming the strongest being later on in the story. The basics."

"Hardly the basics, though I acknowledge that those matters are difficult to convey at the beginning of a story."

"I know, I had to think deeply about how to bring the information out there. I had thought of a few options, like 'sexposition', á la Game of Thrones, where someone is telling important plot information, while on the background you have naked people doing naughty things. I couldn't think of a way to bring that to a written story though, and writing smut while giving out details doesn't really work all that well.

Oh, and Author's notes are boring as hell."

"So you decided to do it yourself then? By speaking to me about the plot points." The Living Tribunal concluded. "Well, if it is that important, I shall allow it. Say what you must."

"Thanks a bunch brother, you won't regret it, promise."

The Beyonder recollected his thoughts, took on a rhetoric pose and spoke:

"… "

"Hm, where was I again?"

"Space Vampires and Gaia." Came the answer, in a lightly exasperated tone.

"Ah yes, well, those Shirou will fight aplenty. He shouldn't have too much trouble with it. He will have many adventures involving them of course, some exciting, others thrilling and some full of awesome ass-kicking.

Then there's the people he will meet on his journey. Plenty of them, some even from other series of the Nasu-Verse. Why, and so much will take place before the Grail War, like…"

"Do not reveal too much. I cannot allow you to already lay out everything that happens in the future. Fourth Wall-breaking isn't very good for the Balance you know, especially not when it is you doing it."

"Oof, alright then. I'll wrap it up for now. Important to note is that no more characters from Marvel or otherwise are going to be appearing any time soon. This story is about Shirou and his adventures in the Nasu-Verse. No other crossover-elements are allowed."

"What about the two of us then."

"We are beings that exist throughout all of the Omniverse, we are everywhere. And if we are present anywhere in the Omniverse, then wouldn't it be normal for us to be in every story ever, without making it a crossover?"

"I see your point. This is all that you are allowed to say, but I must admit that I have a question for you. You added a small feature to Mjolnir, one the hammer was glad to accept. What did you give it?"

The Beyonder now lost his grin. Something that shocked the Living Tribunal. Its place was then taken by a small, almost evil smile, one that made the Living Tribunal feel pity for whoever that smile was meant for.

"I gave Mjolnir an enormous boost against worms, body-stealing parasites and mind-control spells."

"… A wise decision. I take you added mind-control resistance too? Emiya cannot be the one being mind-controlled. That would spell disaster."

"No no, of course not. He was almost impossible to control in such a way before the hammer arrived, through his strength of will and partial loss of humanity. His metamorphosis into an Asgardian has made him altogether completely impossible to control for any being below Gods, Nasu-verse gods, I mean. And even those will find it impossible a few years from now, when Shirou has grown a bit."

"Good. Then I believe we have covered everything for now? Or are there more matters you wish to speak of?"

"As a matter of fact, there are a few. Namely the others chosen for this project. The ones Mjolnir passed up on but were still enough for at least some consideration?"

"I know of them. Though they did not receive Mjolnir, they will be powered in their own ways, will they not?"

"Indeed, and unlike with the Power of Thor, the Boss has left this matter in our hands."

"Then I will make preparations at once, I already have some candidates that I will bestow power on."

"Just make sure you don't take the ones I have chosen. We will need quite a few, so I hope the author is up to some writing. That said, do you need the list of who I have chosen?"

"I already know your list, brother. And no, you will not be repeating it in here for the readers. They will have to find out for themselves."

"How fun."

"Indeed."

"But all this talking about stories and power has gotten me thinking brother. What if we, The Living Tribunal and the Beyonder, were to join other stories? Like, join for real, to help fix all the trouble on other worlds. Would people be interested?"

His golden sibling mulled that over for a few seconds, but then shook his head. "No, we are omnipotent and omniscient, we can do everything and there is no one who can hurt or hinder us. Any being we encounter would not dare to fight us, except for some fools that we would crush easily. I believe we would be Mary Sue's. No one wants to read about us. Do not suggest it again."

And with that said, the Living Tribunal turned away. The Beyonder could see that the conversation was truly over now, and that no more would be discussed today.

He left, as quietly as he had arrived. Calmly, he made his way over to the chosen ones. Those who were supposed to serve and protect the Omniverse in a few years' time. He had to make sure he would choose wisely.

Despite the seriousness of his task, the weight that rested on his shoulders, he felt his grin widen further than was possible on a human face.

How fun indeed.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **So, a small chapter explaining some things. There seemed to be confusion about the subject, so I tried to clear it up a bit for you all.**

 **I think the Beyonder already told you everything else.**

 **I am also terribly sorry if anyone out there is feeling like I am procrastinating with the real story, but I have seen too many stories with way too fast pacing. I did not like those at all and I have sworn to properly explain and work out everything in my stories.**

 **So it can be a bit slow every now and then.**

 **If you disliked the chapter, then that is completely understandable. It is not my best work ever, not by a long shot (I have written worse things though). It is the last chapter of its kind, I hope.**

 **Bye.**

 **Edited later for better flow and choice of words.**


	5. Acquainting with Mjolnir

**Imporatant disclaimer I might have forgotten up until now. I do not own Marvel, nor do I own the Nasuverse or anything related. I am only one, now in college, attempting to make something of life.**

 **Once more I can only offer apologies for the previous chapter. Admit it, you disliked it too.**

 **Now, on with the real story.**

* * *

 **Acquainting with Mjolnir**

"I guess it was the real thing after all."

Shirou looked in awe at the hammer in his hand, which seemed virtually weightless to him at the moment. The hammer was sparkling with lightning, glowing lines running along its surface in a bright display of colour, a far cry from its previous, almost dormant state.

Its metamorphosis however, was nothing compared to the one the golden-eyed boy had just gone through. He was clad in armour, coloured silver and blue, with blue lines running across the limbs. He wore a red cape, the same colour red as his hair. On his hands were armoured, fingerless gloves and on his feet were boots. On his head was a helmet, with small wings sticking slightly up and to the side. Every one of these articles shone in the light of the sparks, reflecting quite nicely. They seemed made of steel at first glance, and Shirou tentatively decided to just assume they were steel at the moment.

Completely unknown to him however, they were much more than regular steel protections. They were created from the material known to a select few as Uru, a metal forged by dwarves. Far more durable than any other metal on Earth, it was at the very least equal to Vibranium. The cape he was wearing was woven from threads made by Freya, holding countless enchantments in it. Worn previously by Marvel's Thor himself, they together formed one of the strongest armours of the Marvel Universe.

But not only the hammer in his hand and the clothes on his body had changed in appearance and form, Shirou himself had been altered as well.

When checking himself over for possible injuries from the lightning, he saw to his astonishment that his muscles had become bigger than before. Not overly so, but there was a noticeable increase in mass.

His muscles did not only seem bigger though, they felt much stronger too. Shirou did not know how to explain it properly, but his whole body felt, improved, somehow. Like his physical capabilities had increased by quite a lot. It almost felt as if he was reinforcing himself constantly now, even though he was doing nothing of the sort.

' _While that is certainly cool and very impressive, I must say that I do not feel like a god though, despite the hammer claiming I would become one.'_ He mused. _'Perhaps I have become a little bit more powerful, but I would notice it if I had become divine, right?'_

After thinking it over some more, he came to the conclusion that, no, he had not become a god merely because he had picked up a hammer in a forest. A good thing too, as changing into a divine being would complicate his life to a ridiculous degree. How would he ever explain that to Fuji-nee, Sakura, and Tohsaka-san?

There was no doubt though that the hammer had done something to him, something that had enhanced him quite a bit. The hammer itself was powerful too, he could see, and feel, that now. Lightning running up and down the handle and top, power now exuding off of it in waves.

It was certainly a mighty weapon, but that was actually what worried Shirou at the moment. Such a weapon was not something one would cast away without a second thought. If this was a mystic code, which he honestly doubted, as current Magecraft wasn't capable of making something like this, then its maker, probably a magus, would want it back. Maybe it was a family-heirloom?

And if it was truly Mjolnir, would that mean _the_ Thor was now looking for it? Because that would create a lot of problems for this city, as well as every city within a thousand miles or more. Or was Thor indeed dead perhaps, perished at the end of the Age of Gods, and was the weapon just adrift, wandering around ever since?

Shirou did not know which possible explanation was the right one, but he did know that he probably couldn't keep the hammer. It simply did not belong to him. He was not Thor's heir to the best of his knowledge, nor was it right to keep a Magus' property away from them. It was for the best perhaps if he left the weapon behind after all. It was too much for him to handle. The owner would surely come for it, and he did not want to lead them to his house.

Upon deciding this however, he started in shock as he felt Mjolnir begin to tremble in his hand. Shirou looked at Mjolnir with surprised eyes. Was the hammer moving itself now? Quickly scanning his surroundings, he couldn't smell or see anything around him that could explain this phenomenon. But how was this happening then?

Well, he certainly wasn't shaking the weapon himself, it had to be something else. Funny though that it started to tremble right when he had decided to leave it behind. Was it trying to tell him something?

No, such a thing was preposterous. A weapon could not think or try to convey messages, they were inanimate objects. Searching for hidden meanings was a waste of effort.

Although, during his research on the subject of Thaumaturgy, he could remember having read about object-sentience. When certain items, like weapons, were crafted skillfully enough, were magical enough, and used often and hard enough, they could actually gain a limited amount of sentience. Mostly this manifested as a preference in users, or a bloodlust being permanently present in the weapon, but there were theories that this could go further.

All of it only theory of course, though his father had confirmed that he had seen some weird things in his career, with the fourth Holy Grail War easily taking the cake. As such, he had told Shirou to keep an open mind.

With this in mind, Shirou lifted the still shaking hammer to his face, and, feeling quite dumb, he spoke to it:

"Is there anything you wish to tell me?" Was the question he asked. He was unsure if that was the right question, but he had to start somewhere. He didn't feel embarrassed talking to a hammer of course, that was a completely normal course of action. Really, it's true, completely normal. Nothing weird going on here.

His train of thought was cut off when Mjolnir stopped shaking and hummed again, the metaphorical weight of the weapon now increasing in his hand, its aura increasing in strength. It should have been a mostly meaningless occurrence, but Shirou felt like he understood what the hammer was trying to say. The message itself surprised him though.

"You wish to stay with me?" A hum of agreement. "But what about your previous owner? They will come looking for you, right?"

A saddened aura then surrounded the hammer, a feeling of mourning spreading out from it, slightly affecting Shirou as well, causing the boy to share in the hammer's grief.

Shirou, though not very well-versed in social interactions, nevertheless understood right away what that meant. He had felt like this when his dad had died ater all, so he wasn't unknown with the feeling at all.

The previous owner of the hammer had perished somehow. Perhaps Thor himself, or a descendant of him.

While it certainly was sad for Mjolnir to have lost its previous owner, knowing that nobody would come looking for the weapon did set Shirou at ease a bit. Fuyuki-city had no use for the Moonlit World. It had been plagued too much by it already, even without adding disgruntled owners of amazing hammers to the list.

Nevertheless, it was truly saddening, in his opinion, that Mjolnir was alone. Even though it was an object, it was clear that Mjolnir had a surprising amount of sentience, enough to feel the pain of loss, the bitter sting of grief. Would it be cruel of him to leave the hammer behind when it had now chosen him as next wielder?

"Well, then I suppose I will keep you with me." Shirou acquiesced, feeling his hero-programming activate. "It would not be right to leave you alone here, so you can come with me for now. Maybe you can even help me in a self-appointed task of mine. You see, I want to become a hero..."

'BOOM'

At those words, as if they were a signal, another thunderclap sounded in the sky, lightning flashing across the clouds, and multiple lightning bolts hitting the ground all across town.

'… _I really hope those didn't hit anyone.'_

The red-haired aspiring hero sent a half-shocked, half-scolding look at Mjolnir. Really, there had been no reason for it at all to fire even more lightning at random places. He did not doubt for a second that had been the hammer's doing, as he knew no others in town that had the power and the aptitude to do something like unleashing lightning bolts at such a scale.

It did leave him to wonder why Mjolnir had suddenly decided to trigger a thunder-strike. All he said was that he wanted to be a hero in the future. Maybe Mjolnir was happy with that as well?

Still no reason for lightning.

The clap did serve as a reminder for him though. He was still standing in the middle of the forest, in the dark of the night, in the middle of a storm, in a place where a divine weapon had just come down. Perhaps with not quite as much noise as it should have made during the landing, rather, the level of noise had been significantly lower than Shirou had anticipated when he saw the hammer descend, but it was still bound to attract attention, as he had realized before he had picked up the hammer.

He still had to get out of there before others arrived, that didn't change merely because he had gotten a boost now and had taken the weapon as his own. He would have to leave quickly and, as he had planned, take the hammer with him. He could hold a calm 'conversation' with Mjolnir at home, where there was no risk of discovery.

Since Mjolnir apparently didn't have a wielder anymore, someone who might come looking, he felt secure enough to take it to the Emiya-residence. It Mjolnir was not deceiving him, then that should put anyone on his trail for now.

His mind made up, he turned around on the spot and sped towards his home, rapidly covering the distance through the forest. Upon checking the speed with which he ran, it was with bafflement that Shirou noticed just how fast he was going, the trees on either side passing him by far faster than they should have. Even though he had not reinforced himself, he ran as if he had in fact done so, going faster than even the fastest of mundane humans.

If he was this fast in a normal setting now, then what would it be like if he did in fact reinforce himself? How fast would he be able to go then? Shirou resolved to find out sometime in the near future. The prospect did cause a small smile to come to his face, since being stronger meant he could become a hero more easily and effectively.

It felt somewhat wrong to be so power-hungry, but Shirou understood that, to be hero, you had to be stronger than your fellow man and especially more powerful than your opponent. He would have to become more powerful than anything he would ever face in his life, because otherwise he wouldn't be able to save anyone.

It was only after a few minutes that he reached the end of the forest, barely a tenth of the time it normally cost him to run such a distance, without him being winded or tired in the slightest. It seemed that his feeling of being enhanced after he had picked up Mjolnir was in fact quite accurate. These muscles weren't just for show apparently.

It was here however that he encountered trouble on his way. And despite running in almost-full sprint, he somehow managed to screech to a halt just before leaving the forest.

Before him, just at the edge of the woods, a line of police-officers stood ready and waiting. They had come in their cars and now stood around said cars, hands on their guns and legs crouched, ready to duck for cover if something or someone attacked them.

Upon seeing them, Shirou immediately hid behind a tree. An oak tree, he noted absently.

Shirou did not have to guess at the purpose of the officers here, really, he should have seen it coming. No doubt they had come en masse because of the bangs and booms Mjolnir had produced during and after its descend and landing. Maybe they thought someone had been triggering explosions?

He could only pray they had not seen the lightning striking at the same place several times in quick succession, as well as it behaving in odd manners.

Regardless of what the police had seen though, Shirou knew this was a problem. The line of officers was tight, every corner held under observation. And though every officer individually did not seem very watchful, the collective would be very hard to sneak past.

It would seem he was trapped in the forest for now. From what he could see when he looked to the sides, the entire forest had been cordoned off, watchful eyes keeping a look out for anyone trying to enter or leave. It was a surprisingly competent display for the police of Fuyuki-City.

' _Well, it seems like leaving is going to be troublesome. If I just step out, I'm going to be questioned, maybe even arrested, and I cannot have that. Not with Mjolnir here and this armour on. Hypnotizing my way out of it could work if I'm extremely lucky, but I don't want to count on that, I'm not very good at it after all. Perhaps I can create a distraction…'_

Shirou was roused from his musings by Mjolnir. The hammer had suddenly started shaking violently again, trying hard to grab Shirou's attention. Nonplussed, and not really having anything better to do, Shirou gave it his full attention. Doing so had worked to solve his dilemma the previous time after all.

Upon him redirecting his attention towards the magical tool, it seemed to try to convey instructions to him to get out of the perilous situation they were in now. Through feelings and brief images, a procedure was laid out to him. There were several steps he had to follow, and if he did it correctly, he would be able to get out of the forest unseen, if Mjolnir was to be believed.

He couldn't discover exactly what effect these steps would have though, as Mjolnir seemed to hide those images from him. They, admittedly, seemed quite strange for a moment like this, but since he didn't have any better plans at the moment, he supposed there was nothing wrong with at least trying to do what Mjolnir had instructed him to do.

He wanted to become a hero after all, and heroes sometimes had to take crazy risks. So he would do so as well, even if he was unsure of the results.

So, in accordance with what he saw, he released his hold around the handle, grabbing the strap hanging from the hammer instead. Then, he started spinning the weapon rapidly, Mjolnir becoming a blueish blur around his arm as it circled. Once it had gained enough speed, Shirou cocked his arm back, carefully aimed just above the horizon ahead, and brought the arm forward again, as if throwing Mjolnir towards a distant enemy. Unlike while throwing though, he did not release his hold on the strap, holding on tight instead, just like Mjolnir had told him to do. While bringing his arm forward, he couldn't help but wonder what this was supposed to do…

"What the…?"

Shirou could only just hold back a manly scream of surprise when he felt himself suddenly dragged along with Mjolnir, straight into the air, into the direction he had fake-thrown Mjolnir in.

No, literally, the hammer was ascending and taking Shirou with it. Momentarily, he feared he would end up slamming against the police-cars stationed just outside of the forest, when he would inevitably come down again, closing his eyes in preparation for the crash and the no doubt resulting fight with the police.

The expected clash didn't occur though, not even after half a minute, prompting Shirou to slowly open his eyes again. Eyes that widened in shock when he realised just what was going on right then.

"I'M FLYING?!"

It was all our surprised hero could say, or rather, yell, at the moment. He was indeed flying, dozens of yards above the ground, sailing over the city like a true superhero. Quickly looking around he saw that Mjolnir was the cause of this, the hammer still pulling him along as it sailed across the sky, seemingly unimpeded by gravity or air-resistance. Shirou blinked in surprise at the realisation, wonder appearing in his eyes as he looked in all possible directions. The hammer was allowing him to fly, to actually fly without any machines or Magecraft.

A quick look back revealed that the officers had not seen him leave, as they were still standing around the forest, staring at it as if it held great secrets, that it would only give up after extensive interrogation, in the form of staring.

A good thing too. If they had seen him take off, then he would have been in big trouble. Well, not him personally perhaps, but nobody in the Clocktower or elsewhere would be happy with either him or the city currently under him if it got out that mundane police officers had seen someone fly through the sky without anything to aid him. It might just even lead to a purge.

Admittedly, it seemed a bit extensive to purge an entire city because of one weird occurrence, but after Kiritsugu's horror stories, Shirou wasn't going to take any chances with that organisation.

And it would seem he had succeeded at that today, fortunately.

An important question to ask himself at the moment though, was if he could manoeuvre in the sky as well. It would be a bit difficult to navigate or get anywhere if he could only fly in a straight line all the time after all. He would have to find out if it was possible to change direction, and if so, then find out how.

He carefully tried adjusting his course, bringing the hand holding Mjolnir a little to the right. To his delight, he observed that his course altered at this as well, as he was now flying in the direction he had aimed Mjolnir at. It was good to know he was not completely helpless here high up in the sky.

Like this, it would be easy to return home unseen and unnoticed, for who would even bother to search the sky for a possible terrorist. This was really quite convenient, both for transport and for observance. A bird-eye view had never bothered him the way it seemed to bother others after all. Looking down from high buildings had never been a problem for him, so this most likely wouldn't be either.

"This is very impressive, Mjolnir." He complimented the hammer. There wasn't really a reason to speak to it, but he felt it would be polite to do so, now that it had proven that it had sentience. "It almost makes me wonder what more you can do. Maybe I should test it sometime? Perhaps also see for myself what has happened to me personally. Something is different about me, I can feel it, and I sure hope I can safely test it soon."

For a few seconds, Mjolnir didn't react. Then it suddenly swerved to the left without any prompting from him, increasing its speed and dragging a surprised Shirou along with it. Despite his protests, the hammer did not stop or alter its course, flying straight to the edge of town.

Eventually, Shirou figured the weapon must have something in mind and was now dead set on achieving its goal. The red-haired Magus had no choice but to let himself be pulled along.

Well, he could let go off the hammer, but he wasn't sure that would be all that wise. He couldn't fly himself after all. So that pretty much left just waiting until Mjolnir and subsequently, Shirou himself, arrived at their destination.

After barely a minute, as they really were going very fast, Mjolnir started descending again, rapidly closing the distance to the ground.

The hard, unforgiving ground, that was getting closer and closer every second.

Shirou, who could remember very well how Mjolnir's landing had gone the previous time, could not suppress a twinge of nervousness at this.

He didn't have to worry though. Before they came down Mjolnir slowed down enough for him to flip his legs under him and land securely on his feet, knees slightly crouching to negate the impact.

Taking a moment to admire the fact that he had taken that landing far better than he should have, as he had still been falling fast enough to shatter his legs upon impact if he had been a normal person, he decided to chalk this on up to his metamorphosis as well.

' _Wow, I really am oddly fine with all of this.'_ Shirou suddenly realised, only now noticing the calm that he felt, despite the night not being a calm night at all. _'I'm pretty sure I should be freaking out, though.'_

Really, it should have worried him far more that a strange weapon that had just fallen out of the sky had done something to his physiology and had now dragged him away into the night, but for some reason, he felt he could trust Mjolnir. It also helped his instincts were telling him nothing was wrong with going along with the hammers wishes. While some might not consider that very convincing, Shirou's instinct had always been rather accurate. So if they blatantly stated nothing was wrong, then he would believe them until presented with hard evidence to the contrary.

And considering the fact Mjolnir had only been helpful since its appearance, that hard evidence was not going to show up any time soon.

After this moment of contemplation, something that had taken barely half a second, Shirou quickly scanned the surroundings of his landing place to see where Mjolnir had taken him. The sight was... rather underwhelming if he were completely honest.

He was in a deserted back-alley, located between buildings that looked like they were warehouses. This was probably an old trade-center then. Maybe a manufacturing-place? Or perhaps a part of the city dedicated to storage of goods?

It had been some nice aim-work from Mjolnir that he had not collided with the buildings to either side, now that he looked at it. There were only a couple of meters of free space between the walls, but the hammer's aim had been true, allowing him to land smoothly in the middle of the alley.

In the back-alley he was currently present in, he found a few cans and containers, some cardboard boxes and the obligatory amount of trash that belonged in any back-alley worthy of its designation. There were no people around or even cats in the trashcans, giving the alley a rather dead and deserted look.

"Why did you take me here?" Shirou asked the hammer in his hand, hoping for a hint as to what his objective here was supposed to be.

Said hammer did not respond to his inquiry, rather it had gone completely silent, no thrum or peep coming from it. Then this was perhaps something he had to do himself?

Shirou nodded, that did sound like the most logical explanation. Mjolnir probably wanted him to do something, and it was up to him to find out what. Fortunately, he was Emiya Shirou. Finding things that were out of place was his specialty. In fact, based on his poor results with Magecraft, it was probably the only thing he was any good at…

… _.SWORDS…(static)…(static)…Sword?...(static)…..clamouringbladesweaponsSWORD….._

"Ugh." He cradled his head at the sudden flash of pain that went through his head. A pain that felt as if something had stabbed into his poor brain from the inside, as if something in there disagreed with his earlier statement.

While massaging the bridge of his nose, he tried to find a possible outward source of the pain. Was he hit by something perhaps?

' _No new objects anywhere around me.'_ Shirou saw, while looking around carefully, noting absentmindedly that he could see in the dark as well as he had in the light today. _'I see nobody who could have hit me with a blunt object. Maybe it was just a random headache after all? One of those that come to me at the weirdest times?'_

It seemed the only logical explanation, supported by the fact that this headache had not been the first sudden pain he had suffered through in the past years. These flashes of pain seemed to come at random times, but Shirou knew that they had been something more. All of them had been more than just annoying pain.

It was as if every time he had one of those sudden headaches, it was accompanied by an image. This time was no different. He could almost remember something from that moment of pain just now, just like he could from all previous moments. He had seen, for however short a moment, something that seemed familiar. Something red, filled with shadowy forms and shapes _…_

 _...Swords…*$# #$#$%#$._...

The memory slipped away before he could do anything with it, just like it had all the previous times. Well, no matter, he was sure he would find out someday what it all meant. It wasn't as if these headaches actually hurt all that much, especially not compared to the fire…

Shirou then drew himself up. No reason to just stand around moping when there was a task to be done, one that had been given to him by a magic hammer even. Now, right, where was he?

Ah yes, finding the location Mjolnir wanted him to be, in order to do... Something.

Deciding to check for any Thaumaturgy first, he took a deep breath through his nose, attempting to smell anything in the area that was not perfectly mundane.

No results. The only things he smelled were the normal scents one would find in a back-alley and the, now significantly less overpowering than before, scent of ozone and power from Mjolnir.

His magic-sensing was very accurate and sensitive, so with him smelling nothing, it was very unlikely that Magecraft was involved. But what was he supposed to do here if there was nothing of the Moonlit World present?

His eye then fell on a decrepit building at the far end of the alley. It stood five floors high and it probably had a basement as well. From what he could see, Shirou guessed it probably had been another warehouse in the past, just like the other buildings.

This area, he suddenly noticed upon looking around some more, was far removed from the civilian living areas, making this an excellent place to keep something, or someone, hidden away. Such was probably the case with that building.

It seemed abandoned at first glance, lights out, boards in front of the windows and not a single sound coming from inside, but Shirou had a feeling that more was going on in there than might seem on the surface. With this in mind, he made his way over to take a look inside. Fortunately, there were smalls holes between the boards on the windows that allowed him to take a closer look.

And as it turned out, his instincts were yet again spot on. There were indeed people inside, shady people even. About two dozen gruff looking men, who seemed to be working with all kinds of powders and fluids, either synthesising them or packing them into tubes or little plastic bags. It wasn't hard for Shirou to deduce that these people were probably drug dealers of some kind, creating and packing their goods to be sold or sent away tomorrow for some easy money.

' _They are far from the worst kind of beings on the planet,'_ Shirou thought with a frown. _'But their evil is still a blight on society, producing these poisons that ensnare people's minds and destroy them from the inside. These people, these criminals, they have chosen to break the law, to spread chaos. It is my job to stop them then, as hero of justice._

But was that really the reason Mjolnir had brought him here? To deal with drug dealers and small-time gang-members? That seemed… Not entirely right.

It wasn't that Shirou considered stopping them beneath him of course, he would gladly do so, as said before. He had been hunting and apprehending criminals himself on a few occasions, ever since Kiritsugu had deemed that his skills had improved enough to hold his own against simple run-of-the-mill crooks. Mostly muggers in alleys or pick-pockets in the street.

So the golden-eyed teen wasn't bothered by the the seemingly underwhelming task that he had gotten now. The reason for Shirou's hesitance was more that he was surprised that Mjolnir itself would bother with mundane criminals, at all.

From what his dad had told him, normal Magi were not interested in the slightest in helping society or generally aiding anyone at all. They just wanted to conduct their research and gain status and wealth. They wanted to reach Akasha, the Root of all Things (a dismissive hum came from Mjolnir at that). Other people, especially the mundane, were of no importance to them.

And surely, no Magus, even the kinder ones, would ever lower themselves so much as to hunt and apprehend low-life crooks. Most would even consider such a thing blasphemy, enough to immediately excommunicate the perpetrator, kill him if he was unlucky.

Then there were the gods. From what Shirou knew, they were even less likely to just go down and help people just because. In their time, they had been cruel bastards playing around with humanity on a whim.

So that Mjolnir, a powerful, highly magical, maybe even divine weapon, wanted him to do such a selfless thing did leave him slightly baffled. To think the hammer would actually lower itself so.

After mulling it over some more, Shirou decided to just be thankful that the weapon apparently had no problems with and was even encouraging fighting with the criminal elements of society. Shirou was in fact planning on increasing the number of heroic acts in the near future after all, and having an unwilling divine weapon would have made thing much more difficult.

To the contrary even. He had already made plans to become a vigilante, the closest thing to a hero he could become for now, and having a near-sentient weapon of overwhelming power that wasn't an arrogant snob would most likely be an enormous help.

It was likely impossible for him to become a hero of old though, despite having a weapon that was potentially on par with the weapons those people had possessed in life. Mostly because modern society had functioning rules and laws that were actually enforced, reducing the need for heroes to stand up and fight. Add to that that vigilantism, as it was called these days, was prohibited, and aspiring heroes had it a lot harder than they used to if they wanted the admiration of the masses.

' _It is not bad at all of course that there are good laws and a strong executive agency, it has made the world a good deal more peaceful and happier. It does complicate my plans somewhat however.'_ Shirou thought to himself, idly, and not-seriously, wishing it was as (relatively) easy to become a hero as it had been in the past. _'But I'll just have to manage.'_

Having thoroughly pondered the matter, Shirou came to the decision that if Mjolnir wanted him to stop these people in the warehouse before him, he would gladly do so. He would have done so anyway. It was somewhat ahead of schedule for him admittedly, as he had not planned on becoming a vigilante for some months from now, but he would manage. After all, Mjolnir seemed enough to warrant a change of plans.

Shirou knew he could not just barge in however. The men inside the warehouse outnumbered him quite heavily and that were only those he could see from this one window. Who knew how many were hidden elsewhere in the building. This required a plan of sorts, and to form a plan, one needed information first.

He pressed his hand against the wall of the building and did a quick 'structural analysis' on it. Feeling his magic seep through the concrete and spread out everywhere in the old warehouse, he could determine there were about six storage rooms, plus three rooms like the one before him and a number of smaller additional rooms that he didn't factor in for now. A grand total of thirty-six people were wandering around. All of them criminals as far as he could determine, as they were calmly walking through the building, passing by the drug synthetisers without faltering or hesitating.

' _Alright, this will be difficult, but I think I can manage it if I carefully plan things after thinking everything through.'_

It was not to be though.

As Shirou was trying to make a plan of action, Mjolnir started acting up again, thrumming aggressively. The aura it gave of clearly conveying the hammer was getting agitated, and that it wanted Shirou to just cut the thinking short, as it wanted to bust some heads, in order to test its new wielder.

For all that Shirou had decided to not barge in, it seemed the hammer did not share his opinion in the slightest. Upon giving the weapon his attention, it was quite clear to Shirou that the hammer wanted him to just… barge in and attack.

' _That's not a good idea at all.'_ He thought worriedly, _'These people greatly outnumber me, fighting them directly without a plan… Is feasible, but I'd need a lot of reinforcement for that, and if they are armed with anything with a threat-level above a knife, then I'm not sure of my victory at all._

 _On the other hand, I was admiring my increased physical capabilities only minutes ago. Would the enhancement be enough to fight all these people head on and defeat them? Well, Mjolnir certainly seems to think so.'_

Shirou was not yet experienced and strong enough that he would dare to attack so many, probably armed, gangsters all on his own. But in this case, he wasn't alone. He had Mjolnir with him, the hammer now calling excitably for a fight.

After some more hesitation and pondering, Shirou decided to just go for broke and roll up the gang, so he could deliver them to the police afterwards. Even if the enhancement wasn't enough, when coupled with liberal use of Magecraft it would probably tilt the balance in his favour anyway.

Ah well, time to get started then.

But first a mask to conceal his identity. He would have to make sure a little evidence as possible would lead to him, and hiding his identity was one of the first steps in that. Seeing that he lacked a mask, as he had not planned on becoming a vigilante tonight, foolish, shortsighted him, he just draped the cape over his shoulders and in front of his face to create a crude facial disguise.

Now he could begin.

The first thing he did though was call the police with a tip about a drugs ring in town. Though Shirou could take the criminals down, probably, it was the police who would have to actually arrest these people and might be of some assistance if he proved incapable. He could tell Mjolnir was not entirely happy with it, but Shirou would not budge on this.

After the call was made, Shirou walked around the building to the main door, which happened to be located on the other side. It seemed a door like any other, though there were more locks on it then there would have been on a normal door. Upon discovering it was locked (really, with so many locks, why wouldn't it be?), Shirou decided to conduct an experiment.

He didn't reinforce himself, at all, only relying on his new enhancement in his next course of action. Now was the time he would see just what it was good for.

He drew back his leg, bringing his knee to his chest in preparation of busting, braced himself, and then kicked the door in front of him, near the most sturdy lookingd lock. Kicking at that specific place was always the best option, as it would do the most damage to the part actually keeping the door shut.

He didn't need to have bothered with aiming for the lock though. The strength Shirou had put behind the kick turned out to be enough to break the door completely off its hinges, sending it careening into the hall behind it. He had completely shattered the locks and the hinges with a single, unreinforced, half-hearted kick.

Now, the door wasn't made of steel or something, and the locks and hinges weren't exactly top quality either, but this was far beyond what Shirou would have thought himself capable of without his reinforcement magic.

Taking a moment to stare at the damage he had just so casually done, Shirou decided then and there he would have to keep his strength-output low in all of his actions from now on, lest he actually killed someone. If a half-hearted kick was enough to do that kind of damage even when he wasn't using reinforcement, then he would have to be far more careful in the future when aggressively dealing with mundane problems.

Shirou then stepped into the house, for now hanging Mjolnir at his belt. With his newly discovered strength and with the hammer being a magical weapon, he was quite sure it would be complete and utter overkill if he were to use it in this situation. He would grab it if needed, though he did not expect it to be needed.

Going by the sounds that came from the occupied rooms, he had now properly stirred the hornet's nest. No going back now, he would have to see it through, lest these people started attacking random others in their rage and confusion.

These people would be in jail by morning, unable to harm anyone else by either violence or those terrible substances that they sold. He would see to it. Mjolnir at his side gave off an aura of anticipation, and Shirou found that he too was actually looking forward to this.

Despite the fact that this might seem strange for someone like him, it didn't surprise him all that much that he was somewhat happy now that he could fight. He had noticed that in himself. Even though he aspired to be a hero that saved everyone, he could not deny that he found a certain solace in combat. Whether it was kendo with Fuji-nee, martial arts with his father, or catching muggers on the streets, it made some part of him feel, at least partially, satisfied.

It wasn't nearly enough to fill the hole in his soul though. The only way of dealing with that was to become a Hero of Justice. Or, at least, he hoped that would help him.

"GET HIM!"

But then the first opponents were upon him, and the time of contemplation was over. It was time to focus on the matter at hand.

' _Let's see what you've got.'_ Shirou thought, crouching slightly, ready to move in a split second.

Five men stormed in his direction, loudly yelling in indignation and anger. They did not appear happy at all with him invading their holdout, but the golden-eyed hero had anticipated as much. He was not here to accommodate their convenience after all. Rather, he was here to stop them.

Four of the approaching men were armed with knives, nothing he couldn't handle, but Shirou noticed one of them, the one furthest back, was carrying a gun in his hands.

' _Not entirely unexpected, dad did say people from organized crime would often be well-armed. Fortunately, he also gave me some tips to deal with situations like this.'_

The man with the fire-arm was currently clumsily trying to aim in his direction, no doubt hoping to deal with him quickly. It was clear to any onlooker though that he was entirely unpractised with his weapon. He surely was attempting bravely to shoot at our red-haired main character, but his fellows were making his task rather difficult, as they constantly ran through his line of fire. The man could not take a shot like this.

' _Best to keep it that way.'_ Shirou decided, as he served from left to right to keep the four other men between him and the shooter. _'I just need to get close fast. He doesn't look all that capable of fighting, in fact, none of them do, so as long as I keep an eye out for the gun, this shouldn't be all that hard. It's possible though that they have more guns than just this one.'_

Guns did complicate matters, but Shirou was nevertheless confident he could deal with them. The wielders were only gang-members after all, so he didn't expect very skilled enemies to show up. It would be prudent to keep an eye out for unexpectedly good shooters though.

All of this was decided in the half a second Shirou needed to cross the hallway. It was there that he made first contact with the enemy. The nearest man lashed out with his knife, hoping for a quick kill, but Shirou grabbed his wrist, effectively stopping the motion and then gently brought his other hand forwards. He softly struck the man's head, at the chin, flawlessly hitting a nerve bundle. He made sure to put very little force behind the blow, the memory of the demolished door fresh in his mind, and then let go to see what would happen.

As he had expected, the reaction of the man's body was not at all in proportion to the amount of force Shirou thought he had used. He had struck the crook very softly, barely tapping him really, but the man was still blown backwards, clearly completely unconscious from the blow.

It seemed he would really need to hold back if he didn't want to get himself a body-count. Oh, and Mjolnir would not be used at all during fights like these. The hammer would probably reduce anyone he struck with it to a fine paste if he could do this much damage with his fists alone.

Shirou then continued, filing this information away for later. Again, he would have to be very careful with these ordinary men. It wasn't really something he was used to, holding back, but he could manage if there were no surprises hidden in the warehouse.

Moving faster than any human had any right to, he disarmed the remaining three knife-wielders and tapped them into unconsciousness as well, using even less force than before. Now he had only the gunman left to defeat.

Said gunman was clearly afraid now, having seen Shirou waltz over his co-workers as if they were nothing. Now having a clear shot, he tried to aim at the armoured individual again, only to see him disappear from his position and appear right in front of him instead. The masked freak then took hold of his gun and part of his hand. The crook's eyes widened when he felt and heard the gun break and bend under the crushing grip the man was using. With all of his attention on that, he didn't see the fist coming for his head until it was too late.

Shirou looked at the gunman, now sprawled on the ground, with a slight feeling of sheepishness. He hadn't meant to crush the gun like that, it had just happened when he tried holding it still so he could knock out the wielder. Another thing to remember and watch out for, joy.

He returned his attention to his objective. While he had cleared the hallway and the first room, he still had thirty-one men to defeat, divided over three rooms, assuming they wouldn't try to flock him. He started running now, not wanting to give them too much time to either escape or prepare themselves for him.

Upon entering the second room, the room he had watched into from the window, he immediately took note of the number of fire-weapons around. There weren't all that many of them, but enough for him to be careful. They also seemed to be of great quality, very high-tech, state of the art stuff.

Besides the guns, Shirou once again noticed the excellent equipment to gang seemed to have, way better than he would expect criminals of this caliber to have. He took another deep breath, once again confirming there were no supernatural enemies around.

After doing so, he rapidly struck out against the ones present in the room.

Once more keeping the criminals without ranged options between himself and the gunmen, he started softly kicking and punching his way through the assembled crooks, taking out the men armed with guns when an opportunity presented itself. He quickly cleared the room like that, everyone except him ending up unconscious on the floor. From what he could see, no one had died either, so that was good.

Taking a few seconds to break every piece of equipment he could find in there, he also contemplated about what to do with the drugs themselves. Eventually, he decided to leave them here for the police to deal with, just like the criminals. He wouldn't know what to do with either of them after all.

Rushing out of the room to get to the remaining crooks, he couldn't help but admire his new-found speed and strength. He was running roughshod through a criminal base without reinforcement or plan and he was winning quite easily at that. It did bode well for his future career as hero of justice, that was certain.

In the second room he encountered only a few crooks, none of them with guns, only knives and batons. Shirou easily dispatched them. The same went for the criminals assembled in the hallway. In the third and last room however, circumstances were different from the other rooms. Shirou would have more trouble with this one, he could already feel it.

Upon arriving, Shirou saw that the interior of the room was mostly the same as the others, with vials, bags and mysterious contraptions laying around everywhere. The people present didn't seem all that different either, gruff, shoddy, shaking because of the drugs they took, most of them armed with small weapons, and one of them armed with a gun.

Shirou then applied the tested and proven method of using the gunman's co-workers as shields, quickly taking down all those present as the last hurdle of today. However, this time it would not go as smoothly as it had in the other rooms.

The teen's eyes widened when the gun-wielding man started pulling the trigger at random, shooting multiple times despite his fellows being the only ones in front of him. Most of the bullets missed, but one of them was going straight for one of the criminals in the room. Seeing no other option, Shirou acted…

'Ping'

Silence.

Shirou stared. It was the only thing he could do. Then he mentally facepalmed. Why had he even been worried in the first place?

When Shirou had seen the bullet fly at the back of the unsuspecting man, he had abandoned his previous course right away to jump in the path of the bullet instead.

Fully expecting to take at least a flesh-wound from the little piece of metal, it was with astonishment that he saw the little piece of metal bounce of instead, not even a scratch appearing on his armour.

Again, facepalm. This was a very high-level mystic code, it wasn't all that strange it would be able to deflect a mere bullet perfectly well. He had never been in any danger at all, had he?

Huh, a lot of the hero-impact of him jumping in front of the criminal to save his life was just lost, wasn't it? Ah well, as long as everyone was fine.

He would have to find out how tough the armour really was, but that could wait for later. Now he still had enemies to deal with, including one who would receive a harder blow than his fellows. Shooting at colleagues was really low.

On second thought, it really was to be expected. These people were scum. Them shooting at each other was not an exception, but rather the rule. The golden-eyed teen's inexperience with gangs was really showing here, if he believed these people to have any honour in battle.

He then whirled around, knocking out the criminals behind him with a few taps. They had still been staring at the place he had seemingly disappeared from when he had jumped in front of the bullet, so that was no challenge at all. When they were down, he took four menacing steps towards the now terrified gunman and brought his fist down on the crook's head, not enough to kill or permanently impede, but certainly sufficiently hard for a lot of pain when he would wake up. Shirou wasn't feeling all that merciful, a big headache was the least of what this man deserved.

With the last man knocked out, it seemed our hero had cleared the building of unsavoury elements. He was quite sure he had hit every last one of them hard enough to keep them unconscious for a while, so he could pack up and go home now.

"Trace on."

The familiar phrase indicated another 'Structural Analysis' being done on the warehouse. Feeling no one left conscious, Shirou knew his part here was done. The police was set to arrive very soon, the gang-members were down, and there was enough evidence around to make the charges stick.

Shirou then quickly left the building, not wanting to be found here. It would be difficult to explain why he was here, amidst downed criminals, wearing medieval style armour after all. Hearing police-sirens in the distance, he decided not to risk walking home, but to fly instead.

Recalling what he had done the first time, now having the advantage of knowing what would happen, he once again spun Mjolnir around at the strap. Again he threw the hammer forwards and again he felt himself being pulled along. Moments later, he was up in the sky.

' _I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this.'_ The teen mused to himself, once more staring in awe at the city below. The lights in the houses and on the streets made for an idyllic picture, the parks and the nearby forest only adding to the charm.

Seeing this beautiful sight, Shirou knew that he wanted to preserve it. He would protect the beauty in the world from all those that would harm it, be they human, alien or otherwise. That he swore.

He resolutely set a course for his house for the night however, increasing his speed as far as he dared for now. So while he was not even close to breaking the sound barrier, he was going much faster than if he had driven a motorcycle or had hopped over the roofs. It was thus only minutes later that he arrived above the Emiya Estate.

He landed safely in the backyard, not damaging himself nor the ground he came down on, as he was going much slower in those last seconds than the previous time, back in the alley. It was good to see that he had gotten the hang of this very quickly. He didn't want to contemplate the destruction he could do if he came down with a lot of uncontrolled force all the time. Based on the fact he could apparently tank bullets, at least in his armour, he concluded that the yard would not survive a couple of harsh landings.

Shirou walked back into his house, just about ready to crash in his bed. A lot had happened today, much of which he hadn't even thought over properly. He knew he should be more surprised, or upset, or questioning about this, but he wasn't, not really.

Perhaps it was the shock, causing him to be so accepting of everything today, or perhaps the euphoria of having his body be brought beyond maximum human potential, or perhaps something else, he really couldn't tell. He really should go to sleep. Tomorrow he could ponder everything that had happened this evening. After feeding the hungry Tiger in the morning of course.

This seemingly inconspicuous thought caused Shirou to stop mid-stride.

"Oh boy." He mumbled, now recalling that distressing fact. A quick glance on the clock revealed it was two o'clock in the morning already.

It had sounded like a good plan, taking Mjolnir for a test run, rolling up a gang, get used to his new strength, and all, but he had completely forgotten about his legal guardian, who would be visiting the very next day. And not only her, but Sakura as well of course.

He had invited the purple haired girl to come over more often during the holiday, everything to keep his Kohai out of the Matou-estate. Fuji-nee, despite her attitude and gluttony, was a welcome guest as well, but at this time, their presence could present quite the problem for him.

Why? Well, because of the hammer held in his hand, the armour on his body and the lateness of the hour. Fuji-nee and Sakura would definitely notice it if he was dead tired tomorrow, he was supposed to make breakfast after all. Hiding sparkling armour and a partially, or completely sentient mystic code wouldn't be easy either, it might even be harder than pretending he wasn't tired. With Fuji-nee's nosiness and Sakura being a rather perceptive person when she wanted to be, hiding the stuff would be difficult indeed. That was not even considering the fact Sakura came from a Magus family. Even if the Matou's aptitude for magic had dried up generations ago, she should still be able to recognize obviously magical objects.

"I will have to hide you for now, Mjolnir, do you perhaps know of a way to conceal yourself from sight." Shirou then spoke to the hammer, faintly hoping that it would be able to help him. "I can't be seen wearing this armour or holding a glowing hammer. It would bust my cover, and make for some awkward situations too."

Mjolnir had made this armour appear, so it wasn't that much of a stretch that the hammer could make it vanish as well, right? Or at least, that was Shirou's theory.

Indeed, his theory seemed to be spot on. Right as he expressed his desire for the armour to be hidden, the armour began shining lightly, before disappearing altogether in a shower of sparks, much like his projections after he dismissed them. It was as if it had never been there.

Mjolnir hummed again as this happened, and something moved from it over to the red-haired teen, and Shirou could then feel that somehow, he had gotten control over the armour. He could make it appear and disappear at will now apparently, with only a thought if he so desired.

"Ah, thanks." Shirou said, feeling rather flummoxed that had gone so easily. Well, that certainly fixed that problem. Now only the hammer itself had to be hidden away. He did not want to think about what would happen if Fuji-nee got her hands on it.

So with that in mind, he decided to ask Mjolnir itself for help again, since it had worked perfectly the previous time, only seconds ago. "Are you perhaps able of hiding yourself as well? It doesn't have to be in a special way. In fact, it would be enough if you simply didn't shine and didn't exude an aura of power, then I could simply put you in the shed. Of course, if you know a better way to hide yourself, you are free to suggest it."

The hammer was silent for a few moments, before lighting up again, as if prideful at its own intelligence and creativity. It did have an idea it would seem. It began shaking, trembling hard, before ripping itself from Shirou's grasp as it flew upwards a bit. It then hovered right in front of him, at eye-height. It remained there for a few seconds, before shooting of again, right at Shirou's face.

Shirou couldn't suppress a flinch at the motion, almost throwing himself to the side to dodge as the hammer suddenly flew straight at him. Before he could evade though, the hammer disappeared from his vision as well. Not in a shower of sparks, not glowing brightly, it just blinked out of existence.

Shirou looked around, gaping in surprise at yet another unexpected event this night. Mjolnir was nowhere in sight anymore, having vanished without a trace. Where had it gone off to? Was it invisible…?

PAIN

A blinding headache suddenly struck the golden-eyed hero, making him almost fall to his knees in agony. It felt as if someone had taken a dull knife, stabbed it in his eye and was slowly twisting it, while at the same time someone else had set fire to his brain.

Something was wrong; his headaches were never this bad. Shirou was sure that if it wasn't for the fire, which had hurt much more and in way more different ways, he would have passed out by now.

For him though, it was bearable, but only just.

… _..*******…..******….SwordhammerSword….Static….Static…PainStatic….Hillo*sw***ds….._

… _Ap**tofhi*…..Swords…U******** ***** *****….._

 _The Hill again, the Red World. Filled with indistinguishable shapes and forms. Not much had changed since the last time Shirou saw it, but for one thing. A new oddity was now present, something that should never have found its way there under normal circumstances, being far beyond Shirou's abilities to copy or possess._

 _Where everything around seemed unclear, hazy, hidden from his sight, save for the odd number of knives and other small blades, the world itself seemed clearer now. A Red world, stretching in all directions, a sun seemed to be on the horizon, either rising or setting. Gears hanging in the sky._

 _More had been revealed, yet all had remained the same. Many things still waiting for their reveal, they would bide their time, they could wait._

 _Yet one thing was undeniably different. A glaring change in the landscape._

 _Mjolnir, Greatest of Weapons, stood firmly on top of the hill, standing above all other weapons. The hammer was as clearly visible here as it was in the real world. No single spot was obscured or hazy. This was a weapon now fully present in this world, waiting for a command to come out again, should it be needed._

Then he headache ended, and with it, the vision of the world. And just like all previous times, the memory of the World itself slipped away, only a vague impression left behind.

What did stick with Shirou though was the image of Mjolnir, standing proudly on top of... somewhere. It was apparently located somewhere in his mind now. Upon realising that, Shirou had to pinch his cheek in disbelief, to make sure he wasn't dreaming. He hadn't even known such a thing was possible.

' _Of all the places where is could have hidden itself, why on Earth my mind? That's kind of weird, I mean, I've never heard of such a thing before, using your mind as storage space. But then,_ _I suppose it is in fact a lucky break, as I can carry it around everywhere and no one is going to stumble upon it by accident, not when it's in my head.'_

It was somewhat distressing that he now carried a mystical weapon in his head, but after all the events of tonight, he found he could not summon the energy to be truly worried. He'd just chalk it up to 'things to worry about tomorrow.'

…He could summon it back from his mind, right? It wasn't stuck in his head?

No, a quick meditation revealed that Mjolnir was waiting for but a command to come forth again. Something Shirou considered quite a relief.

Really, it was much too late to deal with all of this at once. He had guests coming over the next day, one of them a hungry Tiger and the other a caring, perceptive friend of his. He really should be off now. He could work it all out during the rest of the coming holiday.

Quite convenient, that holiday.

* * *

 **Author's note:**

 **Well, that was rather difficult to write, but I think I managed properly enough for now. Again a new chapter, this one about Mjolnir and Shirou's first night out. (No ShirouxMjolnir shipping please, it was a joke).**

 **I got the feeling some people wanted action, instead of slice of life and explanations, so I worked in a quick fight scene. Okay, it mostly was Shirou kicking ass, but it was at least action. It also showed Shirou is well beyond regular mortals now, though he'll be dealing with them much more in my story.**

 **You might have noticed Shirou has not yet done anything magical, except quick 'structural analysis's'. This was on purpose, the next chapter will go into detail about Magic Circuits, Magic Cores, and Marvel Magic.**

 **Like I said before, Shirou is changing into an Asgardian, later Skyfather, so he will be surprised a lot more the coming chapters.**

 **Not much else to say. Good night all of you.**

 **Edited later for better flow and choice of words.**

* * *

 **Omake:**

Shinji Matou was still quite young, still in middle school, and not even old enough to have his voice truly crack. Despite that though, his inferiority and superiority complexes had already developed quite well for his age. He was unstable, unsure of himself, yet considered himself above nearly everyone else.

This evening, he was out seducing girls. It hadn't been long before he had found a few that were susceptible to his charm, as they seemed quite taken with him.

Yes, he could be charming when he wanted to be, that wasn't all that hard. Just throw around some confidence and smooth talk, and nearly everyone would be eating out of your hand.

This evening, he was using that talent of his to pick up two girls, a red-headed one and a black-haired one, who were, as said before, quite taken with him. He couldn't for the life of him remember their names honestly, and he really didn't care much.

He would not ever consider entering a serious relationship with a mundane girl however, despite what he might have been saying to them. He was a Matou after all, a member of a glorious lineage. Only another Magus would be good enough for him.

In the mean time though, he could amuse himself with these twits. At least they were pretty enough to have caught his eye.

"Do you really think we are the prettiest girls you have ever seen, Shinji-kun?" One of them, the red-haired one, asked, just as Shinji refocused his attention on them.

"Of course." _'not.'_ He responded, only thinking the negative after the sentence. "Truly, you are like flowers in a field. Princesses in the modern world. But that is to be expected, since I am talking to you right now. I would not deign to talk to lesser girls, you know."

"Aah, you probably say that to every girl you meet." The black-haired one responded, both her and her friend blushing.

"I assure you I mean it." He said, smiling slightly. Score for him. "If I am insincere, let lightning come from the sky to strike me down right now..."

'BOOM'

And as God would have it, a lightning bolt came from the sky at precisely that moment, striking down at Shinji Matou. It was not enough to kill him, or seriously harm him, but it was more than enough to knock him senseless.

The girls, who were not quite sure what had happened, took one look at the scene, before their Japanese instincts took over and they decided to just walk away. This seemed like trouble, and if there's one thing girls like them were good at, it was ignoring trouble.

Emiya Shirou did not know, and he would be ashamed if he did, but his lightning bolts had in fact hit someone.

Truly, they could not have found a better target this night.


	6. Surprising Discoveries

**Surprising discoveries**

When the clock struck six, she awoke.

It was precisely on the dot, not a second later. She didn't allow herself to slack on something like this and neither did her grandfather. He always wanted her to obey seemingly silly rules like this, mostly just as powerplays for his own amusement. He seemed to take pleasure in reminding her of her situation at every moment available, and had found that making such rules was an effective way of doing so.

She obeyed the rules and played along every time of course, taking whatever he dished out like a good little Magus-girl. It was easier that way, safer that way, for everyone. The pit had broken any overt resistance in her a long time ago. Obeying her grandfather went automatically now, disobeying not something she would ever seriously contemplate. Her grandfather was always far to willing to punish her for every misstep or slight, real or imagined.

 _She could still remember uncle Kariya being..._

So she had to get up on ever changing hours for virtually no reason at all, with her grandfather no doubt hoping she would mess up somewhere along the line. Getting up early might not seem like much of a chore, but for Sakura, it was. She lived in the perpetually dark Matou-estate after all, with no way to tell the time except for the small pocket watch she had gotten from _him_. He had given it to her, just like that, with one of his bright smiles, when she had told him one day she didn't have any way to tell the time.

She had been ecstatic with it, both because it allowed her to determine what time it was, making her grandfather's rules and tasks easier to follow, and because it was a gift from him. He had given it to her himself, after he had bought it, _for her_.

She had promised both him and herself to make sure to treasure it for the rest of her life. Even if it broke after too much use, she would keep it. It would forever serve as a reminder to his kindness.

Awakening on time wasn't all that hard anymore now. This morning however was more difficult than normal, as she had been 'training' with her grandfather until the early hours of this day. It had been as horrible as always, with Sakura keeping a firm lid on her emotions, making no sound and giving no signs of discomfort, despite the discomfort being insanely high. She had learned to shut herself off after a few months of enduring this torture, upon realising that protesting, begging, or otherwise reacting had no use at all.

The only change from routine last night had been Zouken suddenly, nervously, talking about the weather of all things.

She had absently wondered about that during her training, for a few seconds. Afterwards she had shut herself off again, sinking back into nothingness.

She had simply stopped feeling anything at all in the pit, be it disgust, pain, hopelessness, or anything else. It was something that had then spread to her normal life as well, which was made especially easy by the fact she had no one to truly care about her, no one to pull her out of that downwards spiral. Sakura had eventually had almost no reason to continue living at all. And she still had almost nothing to live for.

Except for him.

' _Senpai.'_ She thought, a smile almost coming to her face, before she remembered where she was and who might be looking at her that very moment. Still, the flutter of her heart could not be suppressed, nor did she want it to be. Funny, what a mere thought could do to her. He always succeeded in raising her spirits, even when he wasn't actually present.

Emiya Shirou had appeared in her life one day, suddenly walking up to her to help her with her bag when she had been sent off to buy groceries for her grandfather and brother. He had come into her life and had never left, at first to her confusion, but later to her great joy. He had walked her home that day, happily spending time in her presence, discussing all kinds of unimportant things. It had been the first pleasant evening she had had in years.

The very next day he had protected her from bullies, fighting them off, taking punches and kicks for her sake without a second of hesitation. She had been no stranger to getting bullied, it had happened almost every day and it was nothing compared to what Zouken put her through on a daily basis, but her senpai had put an end to it right away, none of those people ever daring to bother her again after he'd 'talked' to them a couple of times.

Almost like her very own knight in shining armour.

Shaking her head to get rid of those kind of thoughts for now, she exited her room. Fortunately, her brother was never up at this hour, he was far too lazy to even contemplate it. He was also not bound to the rules her grandfather had made for her, so there was no need for him to be up at this hour anyway.

She walked up the stairs leading to the ground floor, making sure to keep her steps very quiet, almost holding in her breath even, to reduce any possible sound she could be making. She had nearly reached the front door by now, and if she was lucky, she would make it out before…

"Ah, Sakura. Good morning to you, my sweet granddaughter."

The old, rasping voice sent shivers down her spine, as she had to suppress the reflex to freeze like a deer in headlights. Speak of the devil and he will appear. It seemed that despite her hopes and her silent tread, she wasn't lucky enough to get out before she was noticed.

"Good morning, grandfather." She spoke back in a monotone voice, carefully burying all feelings she'd had a moment ago. Showing emotions was the wrong thing to do around the old man, as he would gladly prey on them whenever he could. Fortunately, she only had to put her Senpai out of her mind to revert back to an emotionless state. She didn't have anything else to feel strongly about after all.

"Where were you going this fine morning, dear?" He then continued, looking at her with his cold eyes, that did somehow manage to convey curiosity. Sakura managed not to flinch at this sudden curiosity he harboured, but it was a very close thing. "You have been going off by yourself for so long and often these days, I can't help but worry for you. You aren't getting up to any kind of mischief I hope?"

'Worry for her'? He didn't, not in the slightest. He only cared about her Magic Circuits and her potential to bring his family back from ruin and downfall. What she got up to beside that had never been his concern.

She could recognize this for what it was though. He just wanted to assert his dominance again after his showing of slight fear from last night. She wouldn't buy it. For the first time in her memory, her grandfather had shown weakness in front of her. There was no way she'd forget that, no matter how much he would bully her.

Not that she would be able to do anything with that knowledge. She couldn't defeat her grandfather, she was stuck here, most likely forever. But she would take her victories where she could. Senpai was one of those, and forever remembering his fear from last night would be another.

"I was going to visit my friends, grandfather." She replied, still no emotion in her voice. "I will be back shortly if you want me here today, I promise. I can also stay here for the rest of the day afterwards if you want that."

Zouken waved a dismissive hand at her words. "Oh, there's no need for that. You go out and enjoy yourself. As long as you're home long enough for you to finish your chores and you are present at nightfall for your training, you can spend the rest of the holidays as you please."

Surprise almost appeared on her face, only her years of experience allowing her to suppress that emotion before it could take root. That was incredibly generous of him, to just give her the holidays off, to spend it as she wanted.

Unless it was another ploy of course. It wouldn't be the first time he had tried one of his false hope spots.

No, looking at him again, she didn't think this was one of those. Her grandfather had already walked past her, deeper into the house, after those last words, seemingly pondering deeply about something. She had genuinely expected him to try and bully her to bits again, but his attention was already taken by something else it seemed.

Not wanting to waste this opportunity, she sprinted out of the house, quickly closing the door behind her before running off, now on her way to her Senpai's house. His light, warm, and inviting house, which seemed to reflect his own character perfectly well. She almost felt somewhat content now, as she could even stay longer at his place.

Senpai might not be up yet, but he always left the key hidden in the yard for her to find, so she could always enter, whether he was awake already or not.

Usually he would be up when she arrived though, cooking breakfast for her and Fujimura-sensei. The times that she did in fact arrive earlier then he had awoken were the times when it was her turn to cook breakfast. Senpai had taught her a few recipes and some general cooking skill at her request. She was still learning, but she was at least capable of making adequate meals.

Really, her Senpai was so kind, and generous, and amazing. When he had heard that she was normally the one cooking at the Matou-estate, he had immediately insisted on teaching her, both for her safety in the kitchen as well as to make it fun for her to do.

And he had succeeded, partially at least. The lessons he gave her were great, and cooking for him was also fantastic, especially when he seemed to like the products of her efforts. Cooking for her own family was still only a chore for her to do, neither of the men appreciating any possible progress she had made in terms of skill.

Fortunately, both Shinji and her grandfather were capable of feeding themselves by now, so during the last months, she had been cooking less for them and more for her Senpai.

By now she was almost seeing the Emiya-estate as her second home, perhaps even her first home. The only things preventing her from staying there all the time were that it was not polite to freeload off Senpai and that Zouken would never allow it, as he wanted her to train regularly and do a lot of chores around his house. The second reason being much more important than the first.

It made her wonder actually what would have happened if she hadn't been given away to the Matou's back then, when her father had dropped her off at that house without explanation or goodbye. Would she have been able to visit Senpai every day? Could she eventually have marri…?

No. It was useless to think on those matters, the situation was what it was and she would never be able to change it. She had been given to the Matou-family by her own relatives, like an unwanted piece of furniture, and that was that. She had been abandoned by her mother and her father. **Her sister did not even acknowledge her existence…**

Shaking her head to dispel the dark thoughts, as they were getting much too dark, Sakura continued her walk to the Emiya-estate. Walking down the street, she made as much haste as she could while still keeping a calm pace. It was fortunate that it was early enough that very few people were out on the streets, as she could hurry now without worrying about crashing into people.

The streets weren't completely empty of course. Fuyuki-city never really slept, there were always people of some kind outside, doing their thing. Sakura never really paid attention to those people on her walks, they were just there, walking past, minding their own business like she did hers.

And as she was walking, Sakura made sure to dodge any pools of water that were left over from the rain of the night before. That storm had really come out of nowhere. It hadn't been predicted and nothing had hinted at its coming for the entirety of yesterday. It was really strange, as well as slightly concerning.

Normally, a sudden storm was no reason to panic, she had gone through too much real pain and terror to bother about such trivial things. The weather was unpredictable, such was its nature, worrying did not help. However, Sakura had a really bad feeling about this storm. It wasn't based on anything, as nothing strange had happened. She hadn't heard of anything and even her Sorcery Trait was silent.

Though her previous Element, Imaginary Numbers, or Hollow, as it was also called, had been largely replaced by the Matou's watercraft over the years, she did have enough of it still remaining to detect and pinpoint any obvious anomalies. Like her very own grandfather.

But that was the annoying part of today; It wasn't detecting anything.

She knew her Element wasn't very effective against beings not made of Ether, but still, she had such a strange and insistent feeling in her gut that she fully expected it to pick up on something any moment now. But contrary to her expectations, it stubbornly stayed silent.

Despite that, she just knew something was wrong around here. The feeling of power was heavy in the air, a kind of power she actually felt somewhat familiar with, as if she had encountered the source before.

Maybe she should take her concerns to someone else? Someone with more experience than her preferably. But who would qualify for that? It had to be someone who would both listen to her and would not laugh in her face afterwards, so she didn't exactly have a lot of options.

Her grandfather and brother had of course never been options to begin with. Her grandfather would just laugh at her or ignore her, bully her some more and sent her off again. Her brother couldn't do anything in the first place and was not interested in what she had to say anyway.

That left only the Second Owner of Fuyuki City…

Sakura promptly put on an emotionless façade again and started walking further along the street at a brisker pace than before. On second thought, nothing worth noting was going on here after all. She must have imagined it.

It was sometime later that she arrived at her most favourite place in the entire world: Emiya Shirou's house. Even in the twilight, with her only looking at the front wall and the gates, it radiated peace, content, and safety like no other house in the vicinity did. It seemed to have a shine over it, or at least it did to her. She didn't know if others saw it as well, probably not, but it was one of the reasons she loved this place, the most important of those reasons being because _he_ lived here of course.

Entering through the gates, she noticed the lights inside were turned on already. It would appear her Senpai was already awake and busy then. That filled her with both happiness and slight disappointment. On one hand she liked eating his self-made food alongside him and Fujimura-sensei, as it made her feel special when he would cook just for her. But she also greatly enjoyed cooking the food for him herself, so she could show him how much she had learned from him.

Not to mention that, if he had still been asleep when she entered, she could have taken a few seconds to look at him sleeping when she went to wake him up. He always looked so peaceful asleep, and handsome. Not that Senpai wasn't handsome when he was awake, he was always handsome of course, and kind, and amazing, and...

Her thoughts screeched to a halt as she then felt the worms inside of her begin to stir, a heat at her core making itself known as they started consuming her magical energy. Sakura immediately focused her attention on something else, school in this case, or her chores, or on the sky. Anything as long as it didn't have any relation to her Senpai.

With the incredible mental discipline installed in her by her grandfather, she managed to quell the urges for now, though only just. No doubt she would have to deal with them sometime today. I had been a while since her brother had…

She would do it herself again, when she got home today. She could already see it in her mind, as she always could. She knew how it would happen, how she would relieve herself. It was always with the same person in mind after all.

' _I'm sorry Senpai.'_ She thought, once more disgusted with herself and her weakness. She knew she didn't have a choice in the matter, but that didn't make it any better. Oh, how she hated herself.

But then the door opened, and a red-haired teen stepped through, calling out to her in that familiar soothing voice of his, making her worries disappear in an instant, only fondness and happiness left inside of her now.

"Hey there Sakura. Good morning. How are you today?"

With her sadness now gone, a bright smile appeared on her face, now with more sincerity than she ever put in a smile directed towards anyone else. She promptly answered his question, allowing herself to feel happy again. She was with him after all. For now, everything was well.

"I am well, Senpai. Good morning to you as well."

That caused Shirou's smile to widen as he thanked her for her words, making her heart flutter. He then led her inside, taking her coat from her in the hallway and putting it on a hanger. They continued to the kitchen, where several pans were already on the fire.

"Why don't you take a seat, Sakura? I'm sure Fuji-nee will be here shortly. Then we can eat breakfast." Shirou said, already moving towards the stove in order to continue preparing the food.

Again, on one hand, that sounded very nice. On the other, she couldn't let him do everything in and around the house while she was just sitting there. He might start thinking her lazy and she absolutely did not want him to think badly of her. Even though she rationally knew he would not think badly of her for such a trivial thing, she still didn't want to take the risk. Besides, it was pleasant to work alongside him, it made them feel like a family to her.

"Ah, no, Senpai. I can't just sit around while you work. Please, allow me to help you. I can set the table, or maybe help you cook?" She prattled, hoping she didn't come over as too desperate.

Apparently not, as Shirou blinked only once, before smiling fondly at her, making her blush brightly. "Well, if you could set the table I would be really thankful, but you don't have to, you know. I can do it myself. You are a guest at my house. Having you work would be impolite."

Sakura sighed, fondly shaking her head at him, now daring to do so now that he had reacted positively to her offer. He was really as altruistic and helpful as ever. Not that she wanted him to change of course, he was just fine like this. His excuses to do all the work during breakfast were getting old however, and they wouldn't work on her anymore.

"You say that every time I offer to help Senpai, you know that won't work anymore. It is good to see you care so much about guests, but I'm really more of a freeloader. I come along almost every day to eat with you after all. It is only just I help you prepare it."

Shirou huffed. "You already did everything yesterday because I overslept again. I should be my turn today." He tried, though he looked like he knew it was a lost cause already.

Sakura didn't even deign to reply and instead began setting the table, preparing the living room for breakfast. Silly Senpai, she might have made breakfast yesterday when he had overslept slightly, but he had done so for the nine days before that. It wasn't as if she had to work hard here, unlike at home...

"Well, I appreciate your help, Sakura. It does really make things a lot easier. Thank you very much."

Another blush. That damned heat was returning too. Quickly, she tried to change the subject, in order to avert it away from breakfast or helping in general. Luckily, she already knew another subject she had been meaning to talk to him about.

"Say Senpai, how was your evening yesterday?" She asked him, bringing the pots and pans to the table as well. "You told Fujimura-sensei and me you would be going to the temple to visit your father. Did that go well?"

Sakura had known Kiritsugu rather well, how could she not after the man had been in her life so much for those years since she had gotten to know her Senpai? His death had saddened her, and not only because he was Shirou's father. He had been very kind to her as well, every time Shirou took her along to his home. She had been almost jealous at Shirou for having such a father, but she had done away with that feeling the moment she'd realized what it was. It wasn't Shirou's or Kiritsugu's fault that she was stuck with the Matou after all.

"Ah, that went rather well actually." Her Senpai responded to her earlier question, rousing her from her thoughts.

He told her about his visit to the temple and the talk he had with Issei-kun, whom she had met on several occasions. He was a nice person, though not nearly as nice as Senpai in her opinion. She approved of them becoming friends, as they were fairly compatible if you asked her. Issei-kun would be a good friend to her Senpai, as he was calm, collected, and well-mannered, something she knew Shirou appreciated.

She listened with a smile as her Senpai calmly told her of the events of yesterday in that pleasing voice of his.

There was something she had to ask him though, for her peace of mind if nothing else. Yesterday evening and night had been weird after all, with the sudden thunderstorm that had made even Zouken antsy. Her gut-feeling of wrongness didn't make it any better.

She was aware her Senpai liked storms, but she hoped he hadn't been out for too long yesterday, and that he had in fact arrived home before it started.

It had been anything but a normal storm in her opinion. And even if it had been a normal storm, she also knew that there was a forest next to the temple, where he sometimes walked through to clear his head. He had told her so himself. As such, she knew that he enjoyed it, but he'd better not done that the previous evening. Walking in a forest during a thunderstorm, even a normal one, was foolish.

"What about the storm?" She suddenly interrupted him, now completely focusing on him alone. She was aware she was being far more confrontational than ever right now, as she normally didn't dare use such a tone while talking to her Senpai, but she felt it was needed at the moment.

Her sudden question seemed to throw him off balance, as he stiffened momentarily, before turning towards her.

"T-the storm?" Her Senpai then asked, failing to hide the stutter in his voice, almost confirming her suspicions about him having been outside during the night. "W-what do you mean?"

"I meant that massive storm of yesterday evening and tonight, Senpai." She told him, now turning completely towards him. "A storm I hope you weren't in the middle of, since, you know, storm are dangerous, especially when in a forest. So, surely, you weren't out yesterday evening, right, Senpai?"

Shirou's eye seemed to twitch at her question. After that he smiled awkwardly at her and rubbed the back of his head in that typical motion of his that always caused butterflies to fill her stomach, this time being no exception.

She wouldn't be deviated from her chosen path of checking up on him so easily though. She merely put on a hopeful, if slightly sad smile, knowing he could not refuse her if she did that.

Indeed, upon looking her in the eyes again, Shirou flinched, before sighing in defeat as he realized he was not getting out of this.

The golden-eyed boy then answered her question. "I was in fact caught in the forest when the storm rolled in, I had gone there to clear my head and I had not seen it coming."

"Oh, but don't worry." He exclaimed upon seeing her shocked and concerned face. "As you can see, I am fine, not hit by lightning in the slightest. After the thunder first sounded I left the forest at once and went back home again. There was no real risk for me."

Sakura narrowed her eyes. She couldn't properly explain why, but she got the feeling her Senpai wasn't entirely honest with her there. He had probably not gone home directly, rather he had done something else, something he wasn't telling her about now.

Knowing him, he had probably stopped along the way a few times to help people or had spent more time in the forest than he admitted, admiring lightning bolts, as he was wont to do.

Sakura blew out a breath, what else had she been expecting? This was her altruistic, slightly foolish Senpai after all.

And he was standing before her now, unharmed, so whatever strange anomalies had been going on, it hadn't affected him.

"Alright, as long as you are fine." She smiled, deciding to drop the issue. It really wasn't her business what he did in his free time anyway. As long as he was healthy and happy, he could do what he wanted, including walking in the forest while lightning bolts were coming down all around him.

Besides, it wasn't like she had any right to condemn him for something like lying, especially not for such a small lie. She was lying to him every day after all, about nearly every aspect of her life. Much bigger lies than he could ever tell her even if he tried his hardest.

She didn't tell him about the worms inside her, writhing in her flesh. She kept silent about the horrible urges that they gave her so often, and that she took care of those urges with him in mind.

She didn't tell him about her sadistic grandfather, whose body was made out of worms and corpses and who would kill him without hesitation or regret should she displease him in any way. She didn't tell him of her sister who had abandoned her, of her parents who had given her away.

And most importantly, she didn't tell him about her being a magus, about her being a practitioner of the mystic arts, of Thaumaturgy.

A very much untrained one though, barely capable of firing off a spell of any kind. Having her magic sucked away by the worms inside her before she could even properly use it was not very beneficial for proper training after all.

She wanted to tell him sometimes, just a little about her being able to do magic, no more than that, just so she could be honest with him for once. But she couldn't do it. If her grandfather found out, he would kill Senpai without a doubt, blaming her for it afterwards. If she hadn't told him, he would not have had to kill the red-haired teen, he would tell her, and he would be right. If her sister found out, she'd wipe his mind and forbid her from ever seeing him again.

Worst, if she told Senpai, he might turn away from her. She knew it was cowardly of her, but she didn't want to risk him casting her out after she told him of who she really was. She knew she was tainted, unworthy of him. She was only deluding herself when she went over to him, pretending to be normal and clean.

Yet she could not stop. He was the only thing that kept her going, and she would happily pretend nothing was wrong with her as long as she could stay with him. As long as she was able to return to his home. To her Senpai.

She did also have a practical reason not to tell him however. She knew that if she told him about the Moonlit World, he would do some research and investigation himself. She knew he wanted to be a hero of justice, to save everyone from evil and pain.

If he ever heard about the rogue magi, or the Dead Apostles or any of the other rotten things in the Moonlit World, he'd try to fight them. He would try to save as many people as he could from them, not paying attention in the slightest to his own well-being.

There was no doubt in Sakura's mind he would die horribly if he tried to combat the horrors of her world. There were real monsters in that world, both human and otherwise. She couldn't do that to him, so she kept silent, both for her sake as well as his.

Her precious, innocent, powerless Senpai was no match for them and their cruelty and brutality. There was no way he could be.

* * *

Fujimura Taiga was a relatively simple woman. She knew and acknowledged that about herself and didn't see any problem at all with it. There was nothing wrong with being spontaneous in her opinion, caring about the small things in life was just her way. Her family had never discouraged it, with her grandfather loving her all the same and her father agreeing with her on many things even. Old man Raiga's men didn't mind either, instead sometimes half-joking about taking an example of her.

So she just went through life, wearing a smile all the way, not hiding her emotions or opinions from anyone in the slightest. She was frank with everyone and indulged in what she wanted to indulge in. What use was life if you didn't live a little after all? Going from objective to objective, in pursuit of happiness and satisfaction.

Currently, her objective was the food her little brother was no doubt making right now, together with his not-quite-yet girlfriend. How he could miss the obvious raw affection and admiration Sakura had for him she would never know, but she had resolved to help Sakura win his heart however she could. Even if she had to act like the responsible big sister outwardly.

It would be good for Shirou to have someone like Sakura in his life to care for him. Kami knew he wasn't doing so himself. He was an amazing person, but he was much too callous with his own well-being all the time. Sometimes it was as if he didn't care at all what happened to him as long as he could help people. Often, she and Sakura had to force him to take some rest.

Yes, operation Get-Them-Together was high-priority. They would both be better off that way, really, as it was also very clear that Shirou would be good for Sakura in turn.

Not that she could do a lot to be honest. Forcing people together didn't work, she knew that very well, from all of those series and comedies on tv. As such, she was pretty much limited to making comments and remarks at dinner, hoping her dense little brother would pick up on them and maybe finally see what was right in front of him.

So far, she had had no success, but she would keep trying.

Now, some might argue that people who were only in their pre-teens weren't ready for a relationship of any kind, but those people clearly had never met either Shirou or Sakura. Taiga was well aware those two blew her out of the water when it came to maturity, and half of the other supposed adults of Fuyuki City with her. There was no need to worry about matters like that when it came to her wards.

But enough about that, wasn't she about to score herself some breakfast, instead of talking to herself?

She had risen about half an hour ago, and was now just about finished cleaning up and dressing herself. Her mind was now set on obtaining some of the delicious breakfast that was no doubt waiting for her at the Emiya-estate. And as she was a bit later than normal, Shirou and Sakura were probably just about done already.

She left her own house after a quick goodbye to her grandfather and sprinted to the house standing beside her own. No use wasting valuable time walking slowly after all, and all the disapproving bystanders could go take a hike. She entered through the already opened gates, a clear sign that Sakura was indeed present already, and made her way to the front door.

She made sure to produce a lot of noise while doing so, signalling to the teens that she had arrived at the house at last. Almost like a predator marking its territory.

They better not make tiger-jokes again though, she would be very peeved if they did so. She knew she liked eating and she happened to be good at kendo, and maybe she was somewhat aggressive at times, but that didn't make her a tiger at all. Especially not when it was said in that laughing undertone of theirs, something that clearly indicated they were having that laugh at her expense.

Barging into the living room, she saw to her immense happiness that the food had indeed been prepared already. As always, it was quite a lot of it too, freshly-prepared, steam coming off it. Her first impulse was to attack right away, but her father and grandfather had spend years upon years painstakingly teaching her manners, so she refrained, if only just. Everyone had to be at the table before the meal would start, and it was only polite to greet the hard workers first.

"Heya Shirou, Sakura-chan. How are you?"

There, she had politely greeted them and fulfilled her daily quota of well-mannered behaviour. She just had to get her wards at the table, and then she could start eating. Immediately sitting down, giving the good example, Taiga grabbed her chopsticks and held them in a ready position, half turning to impatiently stare at her young wards, who were taking their sweet time getting to the table.

"Good morning to you as well, Fuji-nee." Shirou answered her with a sigh, Sakura nodding beside him with her typical serene smile. "We are both quite well in fact. How about yourself?"

Ugh, was he just being slow now to annoy her? He should just sit down and allow her to start already. Or he could at least hurry while putting the last dishes on the table.

She couldn't help but cast a suspicious look at the teens, but neither gave any sign of being deliberately slow to annoy her as they put the last dishes on the table. She would give them the benefit of the doubt for now then, but her eyes would remain peeled.

"I am well too, Shirou. Now, come sit down already." She thus said, in a most definitely not-whiny tone. She wasn't whiny, no matter what those two might say, they just had to fasten their pace. She was hungry after all.

Her not-whine had its intended consequence, as the two teens sat down at the table as well, next to each other of course, with Sakura sitting as close to Shirou as possible while still maintaining a somewhat respectful distance. The dense idiot didn't notice or think anything of it, but Taiga certainly did, only barely holding in a teasing remark, knowing that doing such a thing would only delay the start of the meal.

"Itadakimasu." Shirou said at last, picking up his chopsticks. After Sakura and Taiga had responded in kind, they, finally, started eating breakfast.

It was as delicious as ever, Shirou and Sakura had outdone themselves once again. Or perhaps not? If it was the default, would it still be considered 'outdoing oneself'? Something to ponder on later.

"This is really good you two." She said in between bites of food, her full attention having returned to the meal.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Fujimura-sensei." Sakura scolded her. Oops. "And it was Senpai who made breakfast today, I only set the table."

Oh? Heh heh, it seemed the plum-haired girl wasn't in time to cook then today, to her great disappointment no doubt. It had been clear as day to Taiga from the first day it happened that Sakura was trying to perpetually join her Senpai in the kitchen, and the girl did not appreciate it if anything came in between her and her quality Senpai-time.

"Come now Sakura." Her little brother then said with a smile. "You helped me a great deal, just like you always do, and you even made breakfast all by yourself yesterday. The food was delicious then, perhaps even more than when I cook. Please, don't downplay yourself."

And there was the inevitable blush from Sakura. Did he see it? He had to. Nope, the idiot was looking at Taiga herself, not at Sakura. Shaking her head in exasperation and deciding to pass up on that opportunity, Taiga heaped some of her own praise on the girl.

"I agree with him, Sakura-chan. You cook like the best of them. Your food is better than any other food I have ever eaten, let me tell you that."

"Ah, please, it is nothing, e-everything I know I learned from Senpai." Sakura said hastily, gesturing frantically at Shirou. It would be almost cute to see her work so hard to deny her own capabilities, if it wasn't so disheartening to have her demean herself like that. She needed a bit of an ego boost if you asked Taiga.

Shirou seemed to agree with her. "No, not at all Sakura. I might have taught you the basics, but you really have developed yourself well with the few instructions I have given you. You will soon be at least as good in cooking as I am, and you will reach that point all by yourself, of that I am absolutely certain."

Sakura was now hiding her face in her hands, face no doubt electric red. She still managed to answer him though, in a somewhat muffled voice:

"Thank you then, Senpai, Fujimura-sensei." Oh, she was even cuter than before like that.

Now that Sakura-chan had been properly praised for her skills and breakfast was almost over, Taiga had to ponder about what they were going to do today. The two teens in front of her had two weeks holiday starting today after all. Maybe they had some ideas already?

"So, now that you two have a break from school, what are we going to do today?" She asked them, putting her theory to the test. She knew Shirou was probably going to spend the coming holiday doing nothing but training and helping others, but as his big sister, she couldn't allow him to work himself to the bone, like he was no doubt intending to.

He needed breaks from his work as well, to rest and recuperate from the busy schedule he had on school days, that was what holidays were meant for after all. Besides, it wasn't as if it would be inconvenient for him to take a break from training now. It wasn't as if something special had happened to him recently that would occupy a lot of his time to handle after all.

"Going to do today?" Shirou echoed, bringing her attention back to him. "Well, I was actually going to train some more," _'Called it,'_ "And apply for that job at the café. I heard they needed help and it would be a good source of income for me to live on."

Ah yes, he had been talking about that. Café 'The Copenhagen' if she wasn't mistaken. On one hand, it was heartening that Shirou was willing to take responsibility for his own upkeep, instead of relying on what Kiritsugu had left him, but on the other hand...

On the other hand, things like that could wait, as today he had to relax. She had just decided it, today was for relaxation only, and there would be no escape for him. If Taiga let him get away now with excuses, then it would happen the next time as well, and the time after that, and so on. She had to take a stand now, lest she fail in her self-appointed duty of having Shirou relax a bit.

"By no means are you going to spend today only working and training." Taiga thus proclaimed, rising dramatically from her seated position. She pointed at him, looked down her nose in a glare and continued. "You already spend all your time like that during the school-weeks, so in this holiday you have to take some breaks, no arguing."

"Ah, but Fuji-nee." He hastily protested, shifting nervously in his seat. "It is very important that I train today, I-I think I am close to making a breakthrough, and I can't miss such a crucial day..."

That sounded like an excuse to her, Taiga reasoned after shutting out the rest of Shirou's sentence, and a pretty bad excuse at that. She didn't even deign to answer it, instead now turning her attention towards Sakura.

The plum-haired girl, bless her, understood the message she was trying to convey right away.

"She is right Senpai." Sakura spoke to Shirou. "You really work much too hard on normal days, you must also relax, o-or you might have a breakdown soon, like Horiuchi-sensei from school."

Alright! It was two against one, and Sakura was now on her side, this victory was in the bag. Taiga was certain of it.

Indeed, Shirou looked from her to Sakura and back, attempting to come up with something, but ultimately falling short now that he was confronted by Sakura's slightly distressed face. He then sighed and agreed to take it easy for the coming holidays. Fortunately, he had not made an appointment with The Copenhagen just yet.

He then turned his gaze towards Sakura, who went from smiling at his earlier promise to a nervous look at the sudden attention, though the look softened upon seeing that her Senpai did not look angry or anything, but instead simply interested.

"What about you then, Sakura?" Shirou inquired. "What are you going to do today?"

Was this an evasion tactic? An attempt to divert the attention away from himself? No, he looked genuinely interested in Sakura's answer and it wasn't like him to try such cheap tactics, especially not when someone else would be disadvantaged by it. After last suspicious look, Taiga then turned her attention towards Sakura as well.

The purple-eyed girl blinked in surprise at the sudden question, caught off guard for a moment. Her eyes then widened in understanding before her smile returned. "Grandfather said I was free to do what I wanted as long as I finish my chores." She stated happily, folding her hands below her chin and wiggling slightly in place.

"Excellent then." Taiga proclaimed. "Let's do something fun together. Shirou! It has been too long since we've had a friendly spar. To the dojo, now."

Not leaving them any room for protest, as she was want to do, she turned around resolutely and was already halfway out of the house before she looked behind her. She was met with the sight of Shirou and Sakura rapidly cleaning the table and the room, causing her to slow her pace somewhat, until they had caught up and followed her outside dutifully.

They reached the dojo in a scant few steps, Shirou and Taiga putting on their equipment right away in the changing rooms. Sakura would sit this one out, as normal, since she didn't practice kendo.

Once changed into her uniform, and seeing Shirou in his, Taiga took place across from her ward, brandishing her weapon; a normal training bokken. She would not use the Torashinai of course, that thing was not fit for a friendly spar at all.

She then opted for a bit of pre-battle banter, to get the blood pumping. "You ready for this Shirou? I won't be going full out this spar, but it would still be wise to prepare yourself."

Shirou smiled at her from where he stood, calmly settling into a stance of his own. As expected, he didn't rise to her taunt, answering serenely instead. "I will try to defeat you, Fuji-nee, even if you have beaten me every time before. And this time might be different. This time I have…"

He promptly, suddenly, cut himself off, taking a sudden step backwards as his face took on a nervous expression. Now, was it just her, or was he actually going pale?

Her red-haired ward seemed to look at nothing for a moment, eyes glazed over, before he turned towards her again.

"Ah, Fuji-nee, I just realized, this exercise is like training as well, right? Maybe we should do something else for now?" He rattled, looking like he would rather be anywhere but in the dojo with her at that moment. "Maybe we can just do a relaxing game of chess? Or Go?"

Taiga narrowed her eyes at him. That kind of behaviour was not like him at all. He had never tried to get out of a spar before, no matter how much the odds were in his opponent's favour. Wordlessly, she shook her head. Regardless of the uniqueness of him trying to beg off, they were here now, and they were going to spar, regardless of his strange mood-swing.

Shirou's shoulders dropped, his head hanging low for a moment. He pulled himself together however after a few moment, his expression one his resignation, as he settled back into his precious stance. Taiga watched as he took several deep breaths and then seemed to relax his muscles.

Then, at Sakura's signal, Taiga opened the attack.

With a wordless yell she swung her bokken at his head in an experimental blow, just to see how much he had really improved recently. Her little brother raised his own bokken in response to her blow, though he did not move besides that.

Their weapons connected with a harsh sound. Based on Shirou's rigid stance, the brown-haired woman had expected to be able to push him back a few steps, maybe even thrown him on his back if his balance was exceptionally bad. That didn't happen though.

Instead, Taiga's entire body jarred as Shirou halted her momentum completely. He didn't even step back to absorb the force of her attack, he just stopped her cold, without any sign of exertion on his part.

Shocked by this development, Taiga immediately disengaged, widening the gap between them in an instant. She then threw the bokken over to her off-hand, so she could shake her main hand a bit. It damn well hurt from having to withstand all that force that came upon after Shirou blocked her strike head-on.

Taking hold off the bokken correctly again, she came in once more, this time aiming for his knees, making sure to not put as much strength behind the blow as before. Both the avoid something like before, and to make sure she wouldn't break his knees should the blow land.

She found she didn't have to worry about the latter. Shirou blocked her strike again, with the same casual ease as before. She noted he had definitely gotten faster these past months, as she followed up her first strike with three more, aimed at hip, back and head, and had all of them swatted away by her opponent. Stronger too, her hand was still throbbing from that first block of his, and now also from the parried blows.

Then Shirou suddenly jumped back himself, putting some distance between them as he raised his bokken in preparation for an attack of his own. Taiga put her guard up, careful not to leave any holes in it for him to exploit. Well, it was impossible to cover oneself completely, but she should be able to stop any strike that wasn't superhumanly fast.

After looking at her carefully for a fraction of a second, Shirou exploded into motion, clearing the distance between them with the speed of a man years older and more experienced than him.

It was not so fast though that Taiga would have been unable to react. She had fought again those very men years his senior after all. Seeing he was aiming for the center of her chest, she made to side-step his lunge, and simultaneously prepared her counterattack. A forward strike like the one Shirou was executing always left plenty of holes in one's guard that could be exploited after all.

She was caught completely unprepared though, when her little brother swept his bokken sideways at the last moment, right at her, forcing her to block his strike head on.

It was a manoeuvre she had not expected him to be able to use. To change the direction of a powerful, forward blow, one had to use a lot of strength, speed, and technique. Doubly so if you wanted it to be a successful and at least somewhat powerful strike after said change of direction.

Taiga idly wondered just how much the red-haired teen had actually improved in the last months to be able to do this kind of thing, and how he had been able to keep it from her. Then the time of contemplation was over, as Shirou's bokken landed squarely on hers.

It felt like she was run into by a horse. Her arms almost buckled under the pressure, only just managing to take the blow without giving in. She had to take several steps back to maintain her balance as she staggered, forcing her to drop her guard completely, and with that, she knew the spar was over.

As soon as she had regained solid footing, she felt the point of Shirou's bokken under her chin. Looking at the boy, she saw him standing across from her, a concentrated look on his face. The outcome was clear; He had won.

Yet despite that, Taiga could have sworn she saw some traces of frustration in his expression before it evened out.

What did he have to be frustrated about though? Taiga was the one who should be frustrated, as she was the one who had lost. It was her first loss in quite a while in fact.

She wasn't one to give up so easily though. After widening the gap between her and Shirou, Taiga demanded a re-match. Shirou obliged, taking his begin-stance again.

Taking the initiative like the previous time, she once again closed in fast, now aiming for his chest as well. And just like she had done, he side-stepped. Noticing this, Taiga wanted to follow up her forwards slash with a sweep to the side, like he had done to defeat her, and as such altered her strike's direction.

Only to find Shirou already gone.

Eyes widening in surprise, she looked to the sides, seeing no trace of her young ward. With forward and to the sides being eliminated as options, that left behind her as the only option. She tried turning around to face him, but before she could, she felt a hard push against her back. Unable to keep her balance, she fell forward.

Again, she felt the point of a bokken press into her, this time her neck, making it clear who had won once more. Taiga made note of his improved prowess, she would have to take this more seriously from now on if Shirou had managed to reach this level of proficiency already.

"Not bad at all Shirou." She remarked, getting up from the ground and dusting herself off with a few brushes from her hand. "But I insist on one last battle." A vicious grin appeared on her face. "I won't go easy on you this time."

Shirou shuffled in place, clearly hesitating as he looked to the side in contemplation. Eventually though, he gave in to the inevitable, and with an audible sigh took place on her opposite side once more. His face now set in a deep look, as he was clearly concentrating on something.

Sakura once again gave the signal to begin the battle, and Taiga took the initiative for the third time in as many battles. This time though, she kept a wary eye on her opponent, no longer treating this like a little spar with a young teen, but as a fight with strong opposition.

It payed off. Taiga feinted a blow to his left shoulder, switching to aim at his right knee at the last second. Shirou did not fall for it though and intercepted the blow skillfully. She followed it up right away with a slash upwards, aimed at his face, making Shirou take a step back, lest he be hit.

She then stabbed thrice in quick succession at his abdomen, each one of them dodged. Keeping up the pressure, she came in closer again and aimed a sweeping blow at his left thigh. That was only a distraction though. As Shirou riposted this blow like all the ones before, she ran past him on his left side. She then crouched low and swept her leg at the back of his knees, hoping to knock him over.

It succeeded. Unprepared for this action, Shirou could do nothing to prevent Taiga from literally sweeping him off his feet. He fell down on the ground, hard. She could hear him blow out the air in his lungs in surprise as his back collided with the floor. She then straightened again, and placed her bokken under his chin.

Smiling, Shirou acknowledged her victory. "Well done Fuji-nee." He praised her. "You really took me by surprise at the end." As she had expected, there were no hard feelings. Shirou's disposition just didn't seem to allow him to hold petty grudges over small matters like this, even though that last move might have been a bit too much for a spar.

"You were not bad yourself." Taiga laughed, happy with his praise, but feeling like she needed to return a bit of it to him. "I apparently can't afford to take it easy anymore while fighting with you. That much was clear from the first two matches."

After they had bowed to each other, signalling the end of the entire match, they walked back to Sakura, who was loudly applauding for the both of them. Of course, a little more for Shirou. That was to be expected, she had to support her man after all, Taiga would have done much the same in her position.

One of the good things about sparring with her little brother was that he did not brag about his accomplishments, and that held true this time as well. He remained ever humble, simply putting away his gear and moving on with the day.

Very good, she had never liked those arrogant braggarts at the club who would demean their kohai at every opportunity. She would grant him the same courtesy, she would not brag about her own victory in turn, and he better be grateful about that.

And repay her soon, with lots of food.

Putting away her own equipment, Taiga settled for watching Shirou and Sakura interact with each other, in order to potentially obtain some teasing material. Sakura was fussing over the red-haired idiot, insisting she check him over for any possible maladies, while he claimed there were none.

She was loath to interrupt the peaceful picture, but a grumbling in her stomach reminded her it was about twelve o'clock. Time really flew by when you were having fun. Standing up again, she immediately directed her words towards the teens in front of her.

"Shirou, Sakura-chan!" She proclaimed loudly, distracting them from their little argument. Seeing she held their attention, Taiga followed up her shout with the second most important question of the day: "When's lunch?"

It was rather amusing to see them both facepalm like that.

It was adorable even, how they moved completely in tandem. They really were alike in surprisingly many things. Yet another reason why they had to get together.

After the three had eaten lunch together, with all the food made by the two teens again, Sakura and Taiga left Shirou's house. Sakura had to do the chores at her own house at the behest of her grandfather, and Taiga was going to help her own grandfather with his 'business'.

They waved goodbye to Shirou, who Taiga feared would no doubt train the afternoon away again, and went home.

"Don't forget we'll be back for dinner." Taiga shouted, feeling it was her duty to make sure he did not lose himself too much in training. Eating was very important as well, she could attest to that.

* * *

Shirou watched as both girls disappeared from his vision, before letting out a relieved breath. He was quite happy they had finally left. Not because they were annoying or anything. Under normal circumstances, he would have enjoyed their company a great deal, as he did every other time they had come by his house.

Not this time though, with his newly gained strength making every task a chore, as he had to consciously hold himself back all the time lest he shattered something without intending to. That along with a mystic hammer in his head constantly making waves through his mind with the power that was radiating off it made this morning a rather difficult one to get through. He didn't think either Taiga or Sakura had noticed anything however, thank Kami.

It had actually all gone rather well this morning. If one forgot about the outrageously unfair kendo match he had had with Fuji-nee, during which he had once again discovered holding back in battle wasn't nearly as easy as one might think, he had pretty much acted like normal, or at least he thought he had.

The kendo match had in fact been the most difficult challenge of today. Not in terms of winning of course, he dared say that kendo-matches with his honorary big sister would never be a problem for him anymore, but rather in terms of losing. He had gotten so fast and strong all of a sudden that, during the match, it had almost seemed like Taiga was a child just beginning with the sport. It had taken him two matches before he could adjust his power to an appropriate level.

Again, he didn't think either girl had noticed anything unusual, but it was quite a blunder on his part to not account for that beforehand. Kiritsugu would have wacked him on the head for such an oversight.

Besides that one screw-up though, he had found it quite easy actually to pretend everything about him was normal and ordinary. Only the aforementioned super strength had been a challenge to hide, but even that had mostly gone well. Taiga and Sakura had left his house none the wiser.

Now that he was alone at last, he could even begin properly examining both Mjolnir and himself. The previous day had not given him any opportunity to do so, since he had spend it fighting criminals, and this morning he had lacked both the time and the privacy needed for such a project.

That didn't mean nothing had happened that morning though.

Despite him having gone to bed very late the previous day, or actually very early this day, he had had no problem at all rising at an early hour, to his great surprise. Shirou had never needed much sleep, but fully functioning on a mere three hours was weird even for him. That's not to say it wouldn't be useful, because it would be, being a vigilante would most likely cut into his sleep time a great deal after all, so needing less sleep would be a great blessing.

When he had gotten up, he had almost thought the previous night to have been a dream. That notion had been disproven quickly though, when Mjolnir had sent out a pulse of energy from wherever it resided inside his head in response to that thought. Not enough to hurt or impede him, but more than enough to prove it was truly there and not just a fidget of his overactive imagination.

The predicted freak-out had subsequently happened.

Last night his mind had been dulled by adrenaline, the rush of new-found power, and shock, but it seemed his sleep, short as it was, had dealt rather efficiently with those issues, making his mind clear enough to properly understand what exactly had happened tonight and what that all meant.

Shirou had to admit that slight panic had followed that realisation, as he had suddenly found himself far out of his depth in just about every way. Since, come on, a Divine weapon? Being practically thrown right at him?

The panic had only lasted a minute or so, and mostly consisted of frantically asking himself questions like why Mjolnir had chosen him and what that meant for his future, instead of crying or hiding himself in a box, like a part of him had wanted. His mind was cleared soon after, when he had managed to suppress those completely understandable, but still rather useless feelings of blind panic.

It worked in his advantage here that the panic attack had only occurred the day after he had obtained the very thing he was panicking about. After he had already had a chance to 'speak' with Mjolnir a couple of times and to even fight a gang with it. That had greatly helped in assuring himself that it was not a worst-case-scenario that he was dealing with here.

According to the knowledge he had gained during those experiences, Mjolnir's previous owner was dead and gone. Cue a sad note from the hammer in his head. He also knew Mjolnir would not hinder, but rather help him in his goal to become a hero of justice.

It was rather convenient really.

Remembering all of this had returned his mind to a somewhat peaceful state again, so that he could think clearly on what to do next.

His main worries abated, he could actually focus on what this all would mean for him personally. Sure, Mjolnir would not harm him, and it would help him become a hero, but that little bit of information left many issues not yet addressed that he would have to deal with somehow.

That very same morning, it had taken him no longer than ten minutes to compose a list of relevant matters he had to attend to as soon as possible. First of all, he had to make sure the Clocktower would never hear of this, lest they made him into a research specimen or something. Much the same went for Tohsaka-san, the Matous, and Kotomine Kirei. As such, he would have to work at concealing his new abilities, as much as he had his old ones. It was fortunate that Mjolnir didn't seem to be exuding any aura while inside Shirou's head.

That happened to be another matter that had mystified Shirou that morning, the fact that the hammer had taken residence inside of his head. He had never heard of this kind of thing before, nor had he read about similar cases anywhere. It was entirely possible that he just had too little knowledge of course, and that it had occurred somewhere with someone before, but for now, he was on his own with this.

It had also been clear to him that he would have to train himself from the very beginning again. His capabilities had changed so greatly in one night that it was unlikely he would be able to fight efficiently with only his current training to fall back on, since that was focused on either the capabilities of his normal body, or those of a slightly enhanced body.

Not a supposedly Divine one.

Last night had really only gone so well because his opponents had been worthless fighters, and because he was apparently bulletproof now. At least in his armour.

He would have to look into that as well.

He would have addressed the matter of his Magecraft that very morning, it being a rather important skillset of his after all, but he had had very little time as it was. Sakura and Fuji-nee had been set to arrive soon, and he couldn't be seen doing Thaumaturgy-related things by either of them, nor would he have made Sakura do all the cooking again, while he would have hidden in the shed or something in order to practice.

She had done so the day before already, after he had overslept, so today had been his turn, as was only fair. Regardless of life-changing happenings, he would not treat Sakura like a random maid that only came over to work for him. She was much too nice to make use of in such a way.

So testing his Magecraft for anomalies had been moved to low priority that morning, to be postponed until later.

And later was now.

Now, admittedly, he had in fact already performed a spell, that being the 'Structural Analysis' of yesterday, two of them, both times on the warehouse that had been used by the criminals.

That much was true, but he had not been focused on his Magic Circuits at all during the execution of those spells. A mistake to be sure, but in his defense, he had not performed the spells to test his new aptitude for Magecraft, he had been focused on taking down the drugs-dealers instead.

He had been sure that morning that he would have the chance to practice and experiment after breakfast, so with that in mind, he had started preparing the food.

On an unrelated note, it was the first day of the holiday, so he had attempted to make it a little more special than normal.

Sakura had arrived a few minutes later, once more arriving very early, as she was wont to do. He didn't say anything of it, but he had worried slightly about what had caused her to come at so early an hour yet again. By now, he was almost suspicious she wasn't being treated well at home. But that was impossible, right? What could be wrong with a girl that always smiled so serenely? What kind of person would in any way mistreat her? No one but a monster surely?

No, things at home with her were probably not ideal, but he didn't think she was actively being abused.

He hadn't been able to ponder the matter further, as a certain Tiger had then invaded his home, demanding a tribute in the form of food, but he had certainly filed Sakura's behavioural pattern away, as he had done every other time Sakura had given him the impression of not being happy at home. He didn't know what he would do with his assembled evidence yet, but at least he was forming a picture in his mind.

The three of them had eaten breakfast together then. Taiga and Sakura had clearly enjoyed the food, which had gladdened Shirou a lot. He took a reasonable bit of pride in his cooking after all.

His 'big' sister suddenly challenging him to a kendo match had been unexpected, but ultimately not very much of a problem. As said before, by the third match he'd had enough of a handle on his strength and speed to pull off a believable loss against Fuji-nee, while neither female had suspected anything was wrong, even after he'd won the first two matches with ease.

And with that Shirou was back to the present, with the girls gone and him alone at last. His musings had lasted long enough for him to make it to the shed in the backyard before he had snapped out of them.

Good, then he could get started at once.

The shed was nothing really special. It was just a small building, used primarily by Shirou to store his repairing tools and other materials he didn't want to keep in the house. In the corner a motorbike stood rather prominently, one that he had gotten as a gift from Raiga-san for repairing a lot of other bikes belonging to said leader of the Yakuza. He was not yet legally allowed to drive it of course, but he did sometimes spend some time tinkering with it.

That did not mean he was neglecting to maintain the shed however, as it was still in pristine condition. During the past year, he had even been steadily creating his very own Workshop in the shed. It hadn't changed all that much honestly, but a very observant person would notice a few tomes here and there, some runes drawn onto pieces of paper, or strange objects that normally did not belong in an outdoor shed. Little signs, that together amounted to something very big.

Shirou however was not here to work on his projects, rather he was here to experiment with his new capabilities. Assuming of course he had new capabilities concerning Magecraft, which, while by no means a given thing, was still somewhat expected by him.

He assumed his standard meditational pose, sitting cross-legged on the floor. Normally, he assumed this position when he wanted to practice his Magecraft or access his Circuits for a check-up. Sometimes he even used it for its intended purpose only; meditation.

This time however he was here to look into the changes that Mjolnir had potentially wrought in his body. He was aware already of the physical changes, or at least he had noticed some of them, no telling whether the hammer had done other things as well, but now was the time to look into his ability to use Magecraft.

Shirou took a deep breath, exhaled, closed his eyes, and spoke the words that would activate the very Circuits he wanted to investigate.

"Trace On."

Prana surged forth from him, filling him with a pleasant warmth, as already the first difference from yesterday presented itself. The change wasn't in the Prana itself though. No, the mere act of producing magical energy was nothing new to the teen, and today would have been no different, if it hadn't been for the sheer quantity of it that was now being created by him.

Shirou had had twenty-seven Magic Circuits in his body, of average to low quality. It was a respectable number, of less-respectable quality, that had made him capable of generating enough Prana to achieve most of the goals he had realistically set for himself.

This had changed however, and it had changed a lot.

Those twenty-seven Magic Circuits were still present. He could still feel them inside himself, located in his soul. Nothing had been added or taken away, to his relief. However, those Circuits themselves had been altered severely. Where before they had been average quality at best, producing below average amounts of Prana, they were now absolutely top-notch. They were of such high quality, it was as if they had been replaced by Circuits belonging to Merlin or Solomon or the like.

Not that he knew the quality of the circuits of those men of course, he was merely assuming things.

He could confidently say only one of the improved Circuits could produce as much Prana as all of his old circuits together, at the very minimum. And all twenty-seven had been super-charged like that, making his reserves several orders of magnitude greater than before.

It was an absolutely astonishing change. And if Shirou remembered correctly, a totally unprecedented one to. It was one of the less-official rules of Magecraft that the quantity and the quality of a mage's Magic Circuits could not be increased, save for Magic Crests that were passed on within a family for generations.

For his Circuits to be altered so drastically in such a beneficial way, a miracle had to have happened. The need for secrecy just became even more dire for the red-haired Magus than before. If the Clocktower ever caught wind of this, he would find himself reduced to a specimen before he would be able to blink.

Correction, before his old self would have been able to blink. After testing it a bit, Shirou had to conclude his new, improved self could apparently blink very quickly indeed.

Despite the increased need for secrecy though, Shirou felt a small smile come to his face. This was an excellent development. Not only had Mjolnir boosted his physical capabilities, it had also improved his potential for Magecraft a lot. Becoming a hero was now that much simpler for him.

He would probably still suck at most forms of Thaumaturgy, an increase in raw power wouldn't suddenly change that, but the things he was in fact capable of might just have become a lot easier for him. Maybe he could even start looking into more complicated spells and techniques soon.

Feeling slight satisfaction, Shirou made to withdraw himself from his meditation, as his goal of examining his Circuits had been achieved. Before he could though, he noticed something else at the very edges of his awareness. Something he had never felt before, either inside of his mind of outside of it.

It was more power, but not a kind that the teenage hero recognized. He was familiar with the feeling of Prana inside him, having felt it ever since Kiritsugu had taught him about it. It was the raw power that fueled a Mage's spells and rituals. No matter what kind of spell of ritual, the base component remained the same, namely Prana, either as Mana or Od.

What he felt now was no Prana however, rather something completely different.

What exactly it was then, he didn't know, but he was completely sure it wasn't anything he had come into contact with before this day.

For a moment, he considered the possibility that it might be Ether, the Element that formed the basis of modern Magecraft, but that didn't feel right. Mjolnir also disagreed if the displeased hum was anything to go by.

That didn't leave him with many options. Shirou would be the first to admit his knowledge of the Moonlit World was lacking, but he knew enough to determine that, if the power he was feeling now was not Od, Mana or Ether, it had to be something completely different, something not seen anymore in recent times. Maybe even something from the Age of the Gods that was thought to be long gone.

While that might seem impossible at first, what was gone was just gone after all, Shirou was quickly running out of other possibilities. Additionally, it wasn't that weird for a supposedly divine weapon to possess a power unknown in modern times.

Even if this was the Mjolnir of Shirou's own world, something he heavily doubted, its powers would be alien to him and all other Magi of this time. The Age of the Gods had ended centuries ago after all, so it wasn't like anyone could research it. Not that the Gods would have ever agreed to being examined of course.

So if this power he was feeling came from the Age of Gods, it made sense that he couldn't recognize it.

But the third-rate Magus didn't think the power he now apparently possessed came from the Age of the Gods if he was honest. Mostly because this Mjolnir was not the Mjolnir of his own world. That Mjolnir, as he had said earlier, was as big as a camping truck, and heavier than any other weapon ever created. It would also not have given him any additional powers or changed him into a god, as that was beyond even the divine weapons of his own world, as far as Shirou knew.

The last reason he was quite sure this power didn't come from his world was that his world's Mjolnir would not have supported him taking down small-time mundane criminals. It was well-known to all in the Moonlit World that the gods of their planet had been first-class jerks, considering all humans beneath them. They, and by extension their weapons, would have spit on anyone who would have suggested they actually do something to help the little guy, and that was if they were in a good mood. Mjolnir by contrast hadn't even hesitated for a second before jumping into the match.

All in all, the golden-eyed boy was quite sure this power was one not seen before on this world, just like this version of Mjolnir had never been seen before either.

To the best of his own knowledge of course. Again, maybe it had been seen before and he just didn't know about it. Such was a very real possibility, he didn't know all that much about the Moonlit World after all.

Even though he was no natural researcher, Shirou had to admit all of this made him quite curious. If it truly was an unknown power, then its possibilities might be endless.

Shirou had the afternoon free that day. He had originally planned to experiment with both his physical alterations and with his magical ones, but discovering this unknown factor threw a wretch in that, as he would probably have to spend a lot more time on his Magecraft than he had expected, leaving little time for the physical aspects.

After some thinking, the red-haired teen came to the conclusion that he had tested his strength and speed enough for now. The afternoon would be spend looking into the modifications done to his Thaumaturgy- related abilities.

To begin with, he felt that he would be able to handle his new, improved Prana-reserves quite well, even without much training. The 'Structural Analysis' of the day before had functioned just fine after all, despite his now enormous reserves being ready to throw power around like no tomorrow. He was still planning to cast his other spells as well, just to be safe, but that could wait. So that left him free to direct all of his attention to the mysterious new power inside of him.

With his attention still directed inwards, Shirou carefully reached out to the power, bringing his mental 'probe' as close to it as he dared. Then he metaphorically prodded it with a mental tendril, before retreating a bit to see what would happen.

No real reaction came from the power, except that it seemed to stir for a bit.

Feeling somewhat more confident at not being blown to bits immediately, the red-haired teen slowly accessed the power, and then let it flow through his entire body, much like his Prana did whenever he used that power source.

The mysterious power felt like a liquid warmth, slowly flowing through his veins. The power thrummed, ready to be used, only waiting for Shirou's command to burst forward in one shape or another.

However, the boy in question was hesitant. He did not know what this power would do after all, so it could not be considered safe to use inside his little shed in the middle of the city. People could get hurt if it turned out to be damaging.

Once again though Mjolnir encouraged him to just do it, making clear through a series of hums and images that it was totally safe as long as he didn't overdo it. The hammer seemed very excited, almost as much as it had been when Shirou was about to fight the gang.

As the hammer had not let him astray yet, Shirou decided to once again trust it.

He focused on the power again. It was still there in his veins, just waiting to be used. Shirou then lifted his hand, palm up, for dramatic purposes, and 'pushed' the power out of the palm of said hand.

' _crackle.'_

Having been shocked to the point of muteness for far too many times the past day, Shirou only felt mild surprise this time, as he looked at his hand, now wreathed in a glove of lightning. The sparks were dancing across his skin, doing no damage at all to it, despite the fact that he could almost feel the devastating damage they could do to anything but him.

Seeing it just… be there… was almost enough to make one believe it was only an illusion. Lightning didn't behave in that way after all.

Shirou knew however that this lightning was both very real and very deadly to all beings who were not him. He had no concrete evidence for that claim, (yet), as it was again just a feeling that he had, be it one he had no trouble believing.

The smell of ozone was present again, but far less than it had been when he had first seen Mjolnir. Maybe he was growing used to it then?

Still studying his hand, Shirou checked his reserves, convinced they had probably gone down by now. It turned out that it hadn't, to his bafflement. This action didn't seem to cost him much of the strange power at all, even though he knew from the few books on Magecraft that he had that lightning was a very taxing spell in all of its forms.

Even more astonishing however, was that he could feel no eroding of the spell. The lightning was just there, cracking merrily, with the only cost being the upkeep of lightning existing entirely unconnected to the rest of the world. It cost no more than a small trickle of power, barely noticeable unless he specifically searched for it.

This was so astonishing, because he could not feel Gaia pushing against his Magecraft. As said before, the spell merrily continued going, without any sign of degrading over time.

But that was impossible. The goddess would normally actively fight against any type of disturbance of the natural order. She should have been trying to end his spell from the moment he had started it, but she didn't.

Was that caused by the fact that he was using a power other than Prana? Was Magecraft done with this mysterious power exempt from the usual laws? If so, then that was both fantastic and horrible.

Fantastic because it would again increase his reserves, this time even more efficiently, with a different power source even, enabling him to become an even better hero. Maybe this new power would allow him to do things he now sucked at, such as elemental magic, Jewel craft, or any of the other kinds of magic.

Horrible, because if it ever came out, every single being in the Moonlit World would try to hunt him down for research and experimentation, in order to understand and maybe even copy the variables that enabled him to achieve such a feat. Forget the Clocktower, Tohsaka-san would try to strap him to a table and cut him open herself if she ever heard of this.

With that thought in mind, Shirou dispelled the lightning from his hand. He also broke the connection to the power, letting it retreat into his soul, to be called back whenever he required it. That would ideally have to be when no one else was around though, even if he suspected many Magi wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Prana and this power.

The golden-eyed magus opened his eyes, now largely finished with the first scan of his new abilities and traits. The metamorphosis Mjolnir had put him through was nothing short of astounding in its complexity and scope. To think it had fundamentally altered his Circuits, and had given even given him a new power source unaffected by Gaia.

One thing was certain. His life had just become a great deal more complicated.

Shirou had just spent about an hour in his meditational pose, leaving him about four hours to kill before Sakura and Taiga would return for dinner. Sakura would probably arrive sooner again though.

That left him with around three hours to practice as well as he could with his new abilities. After some thinking, he decided to go with the original plan to verify if he was still capable of his normal spells.

He had already done 'Structural Analysis' on the warehouse of yesterday. That had gone well, as he had felt nothing weird back then. The information the spell had provided him had been as accurate as ever. From this, he concluded all was most likely well with this particular skill of his. As such, he decided to focus on his other most important skills, that being reinforcement and projection.

His physical capabilities were already far beyond human now, even in his base-form. He was aware of that, but he also knew it was most likely not enough to properly fight the higher-level threats of the Moonlit World. If he wanted to go toe-to-toe with those, he would have to reinforce himself too, making his body even stronger than it was now at base level.

Shirou concentrated again, taking a deep breath.

"Trace on."

His magic circuits flared to life for the second time today, giving off the same pleasant heat as always. He then poured the Prana coming from them into his muscles, erasing the imperfections and strengthening them beyond their normal capacities. He was relieved to discover this was in fact still possible. He had feared at first that reinforcement wouldn't be possible anymore now that his muscles were so strong already. He needn't have worried, as he felt the reinforcement take hold, just like every other time he had used this skill. He dared not estimate how strong he was though, as he had no way of even just guessing at it.

Opting to test his strength as well as he could for now, he reached out to grab the motorcycle standing beside him in the shed. He didn't bother to get up from his meditative pose, as he suspected he didn't need to. He then tried to lift the bike, finding, as he had half expected already, that he could effortlessly lift it above his head with only one arm, even from a sitting position.

' _Alright,'_ He then thought after fifteen minutes, still holding the motorcycle above his head. _'I have clearly gotten a lot stronger than I had estimated. I suppose it is very fortunate I held back so much yesterday. Who knows what state those crooks would be in if I hadn't?'_

Eventually, Shirou put the motorcycle down, as it was clear he wasn't going to tire anytime soon. Further experimentation was needed to find his limits, both when he was not reinforced and when he was.

It was with mild surprise that he noticed his reinforcement hadn't worn down much since he had applied it about twenty minutes ago. He had expected it to have almost disappeared, as he had not been adding more power to the spell after the first casting.

He must have used a lot of power at the beginning then, if there was so much left after half an hour.

Putting it out of his mind, he went to test his last skill: projection. Or, as he called his version: Tracing. His way of forming Prana into objects was much like projection, but better. He had discovered that, after using structural analysis on an object, he could 'trace' that object and make it much closer to the original and much longer lasting than when he just projected the object following the normal instructions.

It had impressed his father, who had congratulated him with his success at taking 'Gradation Air' to the next level. He had subsequently added though that there weren't much uses for the skill in both ordinary life and in a hero career, so he shouldn't get too enthusiastic about it.

Shirou had chosen not to listen to that, and had kept training this ability, slowly making his projections better and better in quality, and closer and closer to their originals. There wasn't any sign yet either that he was nearing a cap in this skill, so Shirou was still practicing with the ability, very curious as to how far he would be able to come with it.

"Trace on."

A metal pipe took shape in his hands. It was a simple piece of iron, with nothing special about it. It was the object Shirou preferred to use when training his projection skills, for he had analysed it so often that he knew every aspect of it by now. The lack of special attributes also made it a very low-priced object, excellent to use for practice.

Despite the low cost though, the projection was still higher in quality than any other magus could have managed with their level of skill. It wasn't a 100% perfect, or even 70%, but the fact that it was more than a hollow shell was more than most could ever achieve.

The metal pipe indeed formed easily enough. The amount of Prana the spell had cost, normally quite noticeable when lacking from his reserves, was now barely noticed missing from his enlarged Prana-pool. Shirou concluded that he could now project a lot more objects compared to earlier before he ran out of power.

He went on to the next step, a skill that was largely comparable with projection and tracing, yet still quite different.

"Alteration."

The art of altering objects, of changing their shape and composition, to a certain degree of course.

The metal pipe changed into a sword, as he had meant it to do. It was a very generic sword, one you would see carried by the foot soldiers in just about every fantasy film ever. No, it wasn't the sword itself that gladdened Shirou, with it being even worse in quality and realism than the pipe was, rather it was the fact that this too had cost a mere neglectable portion of his reserves that caused the satisfaction Shirou was feeling.

* * *

At the same moment, Mjolnir, still residing in Shirou's mind, noticed another sword appear right next to it, at the foot of the hill. There was nothing special about it, but at least it wasn't blurry like the rest.

Now to collect some more.

* * *

The golden-eyed hero could only reach the conclusion that he had truly become a lot more powerful, in accordance with the earlier assumption that he had made when he had felt the improvement in his Circuits.

Just to be certain though, Shirou decided to perform a Structural Analysis on the simple sword, to see if the quality of his projections really was up to par with before. He promptly did so, thoroughly checking for any fault in the weapon.

Only to drop it in absolute shock.

Now, as said before, he had been shocked rather often in the past twenty-four hours. He had assumed that, after all of the nonsense, nothing would be able to truly surprise him for quite a while anymore, as he would still be processing the earlier shocks. What he felt now however proved him wrong, absolutely wrong.

The projection before him was not eroding or degrading. Or at least, incredibly slowly, much slower than in the recent past.

That was preposterous though. He had barely put any effort into creating the thing. Gaia should have been eating away at it at a rapid pace. It had no right being as complete as it was after the amount of time it had already existed.

Was this tied into his reinforcement not degrading either? Was his Magecraft now less susceptible to Gaia's influence? Shirou didn't want to believe it, such a thing was unlikely, no, impossible. Gaia's Reality Marble would degrade any type of Magecraft present inside of it, that was one of the laws and inherent failings of Thaumaturgy.

Except, it just so happened to be true that it didn't actually erode everything related to Magecraft. Had he not just discovered that Gaia did nothing to hinder or prevent the manifestation of his other mysterious power? Was that tied into this? Was this mysterious power influencing his produced Prana to such a degree that it too was less susceptible to Gaia's erosion?

It was almost too much to think about. He could understand it if Gaia did nothing against a power he had gained from a previously completely unknown divine weapon that had randomly fallen down from the sky and did not belong on this world. It was another thing when his normal, Prana-based Magecraft, the Mysteries of a third-rate Magus, were suddenly being eroded at a much slower pace than before.

Shirou knew this was beyond him to understand for now. He had simply accepted from his father that Gaia would erode all Magecraft, as it was unnatural to her, without asking for the specifics on it. He had not searched for explanations or causes himself either, he had just gone along with it. As such, he was at a complete loss at what to do. Was he supposed to report this? Would he have to watch out for Gaia herself, who might take offense at his impudence?

He didn't know, and that was a very unpleasant state of being at the moment. The sheer unexpectedness and suddenness of so many surprises were taking a substantial toll on his calmness.

Just as he was about to have another minor break down though, Mjolnir came through once more for him.

With a loud buzz, as if from a thousand agitated bees, Mjolnir lifted itself from the hill, unseen by Shirou, and flew upwards, to the sky filled with thunder clouds. As it crossed the sky, it passed some unseen barrier there and thus manifested itself once more in the outside world.

Shirou turned his head sideways upon feeling a weight settle in his hand. Neutrally, he noted it was Mjolnir again.

He was just about to continue panicking, when the hammer suddenly produced a surge of electricity. It didn't shock Shirou, as it perhaps should have had things still been relatively normal, but it did send a large wave of power into his system, enough to snap him out of his funk.

Right after that, as he turned his eyes fully towards the hammer, now also lifting it up, the weapon began sending soothing ripples through his mind, telling him he did not have to worry.

They turned out to be rather effective, as the golden-eyed hero could feel his stress melting away under the pressure of those waves. It was only a minute later that his mind was calm again.

"Thank you, Mjolnir." He murmured to the hammer, feeling no small amount of gratitude to it. Mjolnir gave a pleased hum, and then disappeared again, back to Shirou's inner world.

Once again able to think clearly, Shirou pondered the matter of the lack of erosion deeply. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that for now, there was nothing he could do about it. It was probably for the best that he just went along with it. He should be grateful really, this presented him with quite a few opportunities.

Once again swearing to himself that he would keep this a secret, Shirou put the whole thing out of his mind for now. Despite his panic just now, he knew that it was unlikely that anything would spontaneously happen because of it anyway. What had he been expecting? That Gaia herself would come marching in, enraged that she could not influence his Magecraft properly anymore?

No, that would not happen. It was no use to worry about this, as there was nothing he could do about it anyway. It wasn't as if he could revert whatever Mjolnir had done. At this point, he doubted that even completely doing away with the weapon would help. No, it was better to just go along with the circumstances.

That was what he would do. A glance on the clock revealed that he had less than an hour before Sakura would likely arrive. The time really had flown by.

Resolving to get some training in tomorrow, Shirou started cleaning up the shed, quickly removing any trace of Magecraft and tidying up the other things in there, such as his now eschew motorbike.

The projection was dismissed, the bike put back in its proper spot, and Tomes were assembled and put away, though he would be skimming through them later in search of spells now possible to him with his new reserves.

After that was done, he went back inside the main part of the estate, preparing the ingredients and necessary equipment for cooking dinner. He would wait for Sakura though before he would start for real. In the meantime, he cleaned the house a bit more.

As expected, it wasn't even twenty minutes later that Sakura entered the estate for the second time that day. It was with a frown he noticed she looked quite despondent, though she seemed less… tense… than she had been that morning. Probably Zouken had been at it again.

She really had made it a habit to come early all the time, most likely because of that grandfather of hers.

It should have bothered him, maybe(?), to have her come over all the time.

But he found that it did not. He genuinely enjoyed her company whenever she was around. She was a nice person, with her serene smile and motherly attitude, and he had already resolved to do what he could in order to keep her away from her own home.

Idly wondering why all of this was occurring to him now, he gave her a wider smile than normal when she entered the kitchen, going so far as to step up and put a hand on her head, simultaneously expressing his appreciation for her presence in words:

"It is good to see you again, Sakura, you really liven up the house with your presence, you know that?" After having spoken those words, Shirou turned towards the pots and pans again, narrowly missing the immense blush that came to Sakura's face as she stared open mouthed at him.

Maybe it was for the best though that he didn't look, because the smile that came to her previously dour face following the blush and the open-mouthed stare would surely have blinded him utterly and completely with its brightness.

After the plum-haired girl had regained sufficient control over her blood flow, the two teens once more prepared the meal of the day, working seamlessly together as they had done so often before. With their combined skill put to use, an excellent dinner was soon finished.

As it turned out, they were slightly early even with the completion of the food. The hungry Tiger they had been expecting had not yet turned up. Shirou knew from experience that such a thing only happened when she had something incredibly important or pressing to do. Since she had informed them after breakfast that she would be helping old man Raiga, he could only assume it had something to do with the Fujimura-family business.

The delay didn't last long fortunately, to the relief of Shirou and Sakura who had feared the food might have gone cold before Taiga could arrive. As always, she entered with the requisite amount of racket and clamour, clearly announcing her impending arrival.

"Fuji-nee." Shirou sighed after his big sister had taken her place at the table. "You should really come on time. Sakura and I were afraid the food would spoil before you came over."

It was a very weird occurrence for her to be late without informing him of the fact in advance. That only happened in emergencies, and as she was now just eating calmly, it couldn't have been much of an emergency. Not enough to come late to dinner anyway. Frowning slightly as he went through all those option, the red-haired teen stepped closer to the exuberant woman, fixing her in place with a glare.

Sakura was standing next to him as always, nodding her head again in agreement to his words, probably having come to the same conclusion as he did. She too bravely glared at the older woman, though with her, it brought to mind kittens confronting large balls of yarn.

"I'm really sorry Shirou." Taiga murmured between bites of food, eyes downcast and body hunched over, showing she did truly feel bad about it. "It was a madhouse at grandfather's today. Apparently, someone attacked and took down a drugs gang at the edge of town and called the police on them afterwards. All those people are in jail right now. Grandpops has been looking into it all day, ever since the news reached him, trying to find out how someone could operate in his city so freely."

Shirou gave no outward sign of being disturbed in any way by hearing that. Inside however, he felt slight nervousness take hold of him. He had forgotten Taiga's grandfather ran most of the unlawful practices in Fuyuki City. A rather large oversight now that he thought about it.

Was he feeling bad about this now? Was he wrong for interfering in old man Raiga's business? _'No.'_ He decided immediately. _'Those men yesterday were criminals and crooks, selling their disgusting products to any who wanted it and probably also to those who did not want it. If old man Raiga is unhappy with them being arrested, then that is bad luck for him, but I_ _am not going to stop opposing people like that._

Seeing a chance to get some insider information however, Shirou opted to inquire about the future actions of the Fujimura-clan in regard to the mysterious assailant: "So you are all searching for the person who got them arrested then?" He asked, keeping a careful eye on his self-proclaimed big sister.

"Huh?" Taiga started coughing in surprise, thumping her chest as she almost choked on a piece of food. Irately waving away a concerned Sakura who was just about to pat her on the back, she regained control of her breathing soon after, and then threw him a puzzled look, that was quickly followed by an understanding one.

"Oh no, I didn't mean grandfather was searching for the one who took that gang down. That person, or those persons more likely, were completely right in doing so. Gramps is trying to find out how that gang was able to operate inside his borders, not the vigilante."

Well, he might have already decided to continue being a vigilante despite what Raiga would think, but that was still a relief to hear. Both because he was not being hunted, and because old man Raiga apparently was not happy either with those gangs. Maybe he could use that in further expeditions.

"Ah yes, I suppose it makes sense Raiga-san wouldn't want intruders in Fuyuki-City." Shirou said mildly. "Is it not hard work to keep them all out?"

Taiga sighed deeply, going as far as to put her chopsticks down, signalling things were about to get serious. "Gramps is working hard at keeping outsiders away from the city," she started. "But while big organisations indeed don't stand a chance here, smaller ones like that drugs gang are still quite widespread throughout the town. We simply lack the time and manpower to root them out completely."

A whole lot of criminals, concentrated in small gangs, working outside of old man Raiga's influence? Shirou now knew how he was going to practice with Mjolnir some more in the near future. _'Thank you Fuji-nee.'_ He thought.

"Alright you two, no more talking about such matters at dinner, it is wholly inappropriate." Sakura suddenly huffed, shooting the both of them an angry look. "And Fujimura-sensei, try to be on time in the future or else let us know you are going to be delayed ahead of time." She scolded them. Her attempt to be intimidating fell flat though, as she only managed to look adorable to Shirou and Taiga. Nevertheless, Shirou did change the subject away from the heavy matters of the past minutes, and Taiga promised not to be late unannounced anymore.

Just like breakfast and lunch, dinner was a calm affair, with each of them shortly telling the others what they had done that day. Of course, none of the three told the whole truth, as each had something to hide from the others, but the gist of their stories was clear.

As Sakura and Taiga had already finished their respective chores and appointed tasks for the day, they hung around for some more hours after dinner. While that should have annoyed him, as it cut even more into his training time, Shirou found that he was actually quite happy with their company. Normally, they would have to leave a short time after dinner, so getting to spend an evening with them was a nice change of pace. And contrary to that same morning, Shirou had done the most important experiments by now. The rest could wait until tomorrow.

Then he could get started.

* * *

 **And voila, another chapter. This one took somewhat longer, as it just kept rubbing me the wrong way. Did I characterize Sakura and Taiga properly? Or did I make mistakes?**

 **Shirou now has done some experimenting and has discovered several astounding things about himself, not in the least the new power and the lessened eroding of his Magecraft.**

 **That mysterious power is of course the Power of Thor. Name it what you will, Odin Force, Thor Force, A Skyfather's Power, go crazy. Just know that it will follow the Marvel rules and not the Type Moon rules.**

 **His normal Magecraft will still mainly follow the rules of his own universe, for now. Be aware though that over time Gaia will lose more and more of her influence over him. This isn't overly noticeable to others, so it will remain a secret for quite long, but I'm already looking forward to writing realization scenes. Those are going to be fantastic.**

 **As for Shirou's panic attacks, I am completely aware that might be OCC for him, but I had to have him react in some way to the mind-blowing things that have happened with and around him. They are over now though, no more panic attacks. At least, not until the next perception-shattering thing happens. Such as a meeting with the Boss perhaps. Something to think about.**

 **In future chapters, eating scenes won't be described so detailed anymore except when something important happens during a meal.**

 **The next chapter will have Shirou apply for the job at the Copenhagen and test his capabilities some more. I don't think there will be more combat yet though.**

 **Okay, this was the chapter. Farewell, with greetings from Ted.**

 **Edited later for better flow and choice of words.**


	7. Who was Thor?

**Who was Thor?**

Kurata Shojiro was grinding his teeth in suppressed anger and frustration. It was all he could do to not explode in rage, for if he did so, he would surely sprint into the city and shoot the people around him in a Berserker-like fury. That was how angry he was, how furious he felt towards those who treated him so unfairly.

Kurata was wholly convinced his cause for anger was a valid one. Many would not have agreed with him though, and absolutely no innocent citizen would ever feel any kind of sympathy towards him even if he had been right in getting himself worked up like that. Rather, they would all agree that all the bad things that were happening to him right then were the very least of what he deserved.

Kurata was currently standing near a decrepit, seemingly deserted apartment complex that he was supposed to guard and protect. Specifically, in an alley directly across from the building. He had been put on guard duty today for the fourth time in a row, which would have been enough to irritate anyone, if you asked Kurata himself.

After all, it was winter, and not one of those weak winters with a few rainfalls and temperatures above ten degrees Celsius either. For all of those four days he had been outside, it had been freezing and raining the entire time. Kurata had been miserable and wet for three whole days now and today he would be again. Hell, he already was.

It didn't help it was the dead of night, without a single ray of sunshine to provide some warmth or even only some light to poor Kurata. He was just standing there in the dark, being wet and cold. The only light sources were some streetlamps and Kurata's own lamp, and the only means of staying warm were the heat coming off said lamp and the coat he was wearing. A downright hell in his opinion.

Now, a normal, law-abiding citizen might wonder why he was standing guard somewhere in an alley in the middle of the night, and why it had to be outside in the rain and the cold, instead of just warmly inside of the building he was supposed to be guarding at the moment. The answer to that was quite simple. Kurata Shojiro was a crook. A criminal. A member of one of the numerous small gangs that called Fuyuki-City their home. His purpose was not preventing thieves from taking his employer's property, something he would have been able to do while inside. He had been tasked with watching out for cops and members of other gangs, which required him to be out of the building itself.

Kurata had always been destined for that line of work. Being a criminal that is, not guarding. He was never meant for guarding things, only taking them.

Already from a young age he had been rebellious, troublesome, and lazy. Despite growing up in a fairly well-off family who had tried to keep him on the right path with all they had, he had never bothered to put any effort into his studies or the learning of a useful trade. He considered his family's concerns mere nagging at his head. He had much preferred hanging around with his similarly criminal buddies during his school time, which they of course did not spend at school. Instead they were using drugs, extorting shop owners, and more.

Eventually, his family had seen he was not redeemable, and had subsequently cut ties with him, threatening to call the police if he ever showed up anywhere near them again. It had left him homeless and largely penniless, but fortunately for him and unfortunately for all others in his life, he had not been out of possibilities.

He and his friends had started a real criminal gang, doing much the same as before, only now full-time. That had actually gone well for quite some time, as the city they had operated in had had both a lousy police-force and also no other strong gangs in their neighbourhood who would have seen them as rivals and would have forced them out of business. Life had been good for a while.

The gang had been involved in their usual business at first; drugs, extortion, muggings, and the like, sticking to what they knew. After a while though, they had started aiming higher. It hadn't been long before they had started kidnapping and ransoming people for money, murdering others as hitmen for hire, human trafficking, and all kinds of other things that were way over the line of forgivable.

Despite Kurata having been lazy for all of his life, he had truly seemed to have found his calling as member of the criminal underworld. He had actually worked hard for the first time in his life, which had led to him being named the unofficial leader of the little gang.

The gang had started out small, but it hadn't stayed little for long though. It had grown, from a few childhood friends to a couple hundred men in only a few years' time, with Kurata and his buddies sitting at the top of the food chain. They had begun rivaling with even the biggest of criminal organisations already present in the city, fighting over domain and influence.

Honestly, no one had expected them to come that far, least of all Kurata himself.

They simply hadn't have the drive, the intelligence, or the sheer tenaciousness required to make it to the top. Sure, Kurata himself had put in actual effort, but the others hadn't, and Kurata had not put in enough work to make up for that. What little natural talent they had besides that would never have been enough to prosper so much in such a short time.

So the question was: how had they ever made it to the top then?

They had managed that because of one thing they had going for them: A loyal customer.

Back when they had been a small group, they had been approached by a mysterious individual, who had requested them to kidnap people for him. There was no specification on who that had to be, the man had just needed victims who were unimportant enough to not be pursued too much by either their families or the police.

Not seeing any problem with that, Kurata and co. had done as the stranger had asked, kidnapping random homeless people and members of rivaling groups until they had collected a reasonable number of them. The stranger had been satisfied and had paid them a large sum of money, while simultaneously asking to abduct even more people for him, and even more after that.

That had continued for a few years. The money, along with some very fortunate occurrences, had paved the way for Kurata's gang to rise to the top, where they had remained for quite a long time, relatively speaking.

Of course, despite rising so high, they never forgot to pay the man his due. Even though there had been times he had contemplated telling the man to go fuck himself, every time he had met the stranger in person he would find himself again doing what that man asked of him. Even if he had planned against it beforehand.

He had not let it bother him though, and had just enjoyed the good life. Stressing over an unnaturally charismatic man would have driven him into an early grave, and he much rather had spend his time abusing prostitutes or the like.

Life had been perfect, but Kurata had forgotten the one thing his father had told him that actually stuck with the crook, even into adulthood: 'If something seems too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.'

Their empire had been mighty in their city, but it couldn't last forever, or even just longer than a few years really. Being as unprofessional as they were, they had made a lot of mistakes over the years. Such as revealing their identities, their hiding places, the plans and plots they had made, their associates, and more. Eventually, the police had been able to just step in and roll up the entire gang without the slightest effort.

Only Kurata had escaped from the mass-arrest that had followed. He had fled the city, abandoning his comrades and leaving behind everything that might incite the cops to chase after him. He had been poor before, but never dead.

His flight had taken him to one of the most inhabitable cities of the area. Well, inhabitable for criminals at least. And if he'd had any other choice, he would have avoided it. No one ever wanted to go to Fuyuki-City.

It wasn't that the police were so efficient here, rather, the opposite was true. They were even more hopeless than in Kurata's old hometown, and that was saying something. No, it certainly wasn't the police that had every gang in the city on their toes.

The problem for criminals in this city was that it already had a large organized criminal presence, that being the local Yakuza. This particular branch was led by the infamous Fujimura-clan. Tenacious bastards if you asked Kurata.

Because of them refusing him entrance to their organisation, he had been forced to join a small-time drugs gang to obtain food and shelter, a gang with barely any influence or reputation.

Worse, the Yakuza had turned out to be very allergic to any rivals, no matter how small or insignificant, forcing the other gangs to either leave the city or go into hiding. His gang had chosen the second option, squatting in abandoned buildings on the edges of town, producing the wares as sneakily as possible and selling them clandestinely on the black market.

It was a big setback for Kurata. He had gone from one of the leaders of a big, up-and-coming gang to one of the lowest stooges of a no-name, tiny gang. They had no more than fifty members for Kami's sake. The only reason he wasn't bolting again was because none of the other gangs in this city were any better, rather they were often even worse, and because he had no guarantees he would find nicer prospects in other towns.

Besides, despite his grousing just now, it wasn't all bad here. Sure, the gang might be small, but that also meant he had less competition in extorting the local shops. They might not have a lot of money, but he was used to that and actually worked best when his resources were limited. The gang might not have a lot of influence, but he would fix that in time, he was sure of it.

He was still holding out hope that the mysterious stranger that had made his original group so big would approach him again. That would help him immensely to get started properly with this rabble in Fuyuki-City. He had frequently wished he himself possessed a means to contact the stranger, but he didn't.

It was very strange in fact. Despite having met the man several times, he could remember nothing distinctive about him. In his memory, no matter how hard Kurata concentrated, the stranger remained a blurry form with a distorted voice.

Heck, that hadn't been the only strange thing. The stranger had somehow managed to get even the most hot-headed people of the gang to work for him, sometimes even by only staring them in the eyes. It was so weird.

Kurata huffed. Reminiscing about the past had cooled his rage quite well, he noticed. Enough for him to settle down again. That didn't mean he wasn't angry anymore, because he still was. It was outrageous for him to be on guard duty again, while he could be spending this time extorting shop owners, visiting the whores, or even searching for new avenues for the gang as a whole.

But no, his superiors had ordered him to stand guard again, together with no less than four other members. An enormous number if one took into account the small size of the gang, and not something normal for them at all. A mere week ago, they would have been satisfied with only one sentinel, or none at all, as the need for surveillance hadn't been this high back then.

But ever since last week, the small gangs of Fuyuki-City had been dropping like flies. Somehow, more and more of them had gotten arrested, one by one. Kurata had feared at first it was a sign that the police were getting more competent, that it was another mass arrest like the one in his hometown, but the cause had turned out to be something else entirely.

Contacts within the police had revealed that the arrests had been possible, not because of the work the law-enforcement might have been doing, but because of a new vigilante in town. Every night, the police would be called one, two, maybe even three times, by someone requesting them to come arrest a large number of people.

Upon arriving at the designated spot, the police would always find the entire gang unconscious and restrained, with enough evidence scattered around to make any charges stick. The cops had of course immediately made use of that, taking in the criminals and pretending it was all their work.

The emergence of the vigilante had made his superiors very nervous, which is why he was standing out in the rain like this, instead of sitting somewhere warm and comfortable. He had to watch out for the supposed hero and pump him full of lead if he showed himself.

Waste of time and effort if you asked Kurata. That punk wasn't going to hunt them, they were with much too great a number for that. They had like fifty members after all. With that and also five guards standing around looking for any sign of the vigilante and eager to shoot something, there was no way he'd dare to attack them.

Nodding to himself, Kurata turned towards his closest fellow guard, hoping for a conversation about something or the other, knowing that man was most likely just as bored as he was. The man was supposed to be located in another alley across from his own. That man was a lucky bastard, having an overhanging part of the roof to take shelter under.

However, upon turning his eyes towards the place where the man was supposed to be, he saw only an empty spot. No sign of life visible at all, in stark contrast to the smoking, coughing, and cursing man that had been standing there only minutes ago.

Being an experienced back-stabber himself, Kurata immediately assumed the man had ditched him and the other three guards to go do something else. It was what he would have done after all had he even gotten the slightest of chances.

That wouldn't fly with him!

If he didn't get to slack on this accursed job, then no one would. He would tell his superiors about this insubordination at once upon returning inside. He would get that slacker punished heavily, his superiors would see to that. Oh yes, they'd no doubt appreciate a helping hand in keeping everyone on their toes. Maybe they'd be grateful enough even to get him off guard duty for the coming weeks.

He sprinted out of the alley, in search of the three other watchmen, to tell them they had been ditched by one of their own. Perhaps they could group together and complain a bit for the rest of the night, to make this job a bit interesting at least. He knew he certainly had enough to complain about.

A twinge of nervousness entered his mind though, upon discovering they too were nowhere in sight.

This was getting weird. One stupid idiot slacking on duty he could understand, but all four of them at once? Something was wrong here. Had he missed a call to come back inside when he had been reminiscing the past?

He now sprinted towards the spot where he had last seen his fellow guard. The one who had been located in the alley across from his. The alley really was empty though, except for a couple of boxes laid smack down in the middle of the alley.

Boxes that had been to the side only a few minutes ago, and were now perfectly placed to hide something human-sized from view, Kurata realised, feeling like his heart had just sunk into his shoes.

It was with a horrible feeling that Kurata approached those boxes, as he had seen enough horror-films to know where this was going.

Stopping just in front of the obstruction, he contemplated running to the apartment complex as fast as he could. Being outside in the dark, alone, with his comrades having disappeared, was doing nothing good for his courage. But he knew he couldn't flee, despite the fear he felt. If it turned out he had been panicking for nothing, running away like a little girl at the first sign of trouble, he would be put on guard duty for the rest of his life.

With a gulp, he took the last step… and looked behind the boxes.

He whimpered as he saw precisely what he had been fearing. The downed body of his fellow guard. The situation was clear to him at that moment. He was alone, at night, with something lurking in the shadows, next to the body of a victim. There was no doubt he would be next…

His budding panic was interrupted though, by an unexpected sight. An item was laying right next to his downed colleague. A very suspicious item in fact. Upon closer inspection, the object he saw was revealed to be a blunted arrow. It took a while before Kurata was able to make the correct conclusion, but when he did, his eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to yell out to the men inside the apartment complex.

It was too late though.

"Please don't scream, you'll wake the neighbours." A voice suddenly said from behind him.

Kurata turned around in a flash, just in time too see a man, clad in black clothes with a mask hiding his lower face and a hood over his hair, with his arm drawn back. "You really shouldn't have walked out of my sight; those arrows would have hurt a lot less in the morning than this will."

Then the crook saw a fist coming for his face, much too fast to dodge. He had but a moment to swear in his mind, before the blow struck him full on. His head exploded in pain, and he knew nothing anymore.

* * *

Shirou looked at the criminal he had just taken down with a mildly pitying expression on his face. He had taken the other four out with his arrows, but the man's sudden sprint to the other alley had forced him to come close to finish the job before the man could sound any alarm. Shirou had to hit him personally with his fist, and he knew this guy would have a far larger headache in the morning than the others would have.

Still, this was a good start. All that was left now was taking down the actual gang inside and then calling the police to put these criminals behind bars. Just like he had done several times before during this week. Nice and easy.

Or at least, that was what he had thought at the beginning of this crime-fighting spree. By now however, one week into his mission, he had discovered that even easy-seeming activities could bring unexpected problems with them.

He had indeed easily taken down every bit of opposition the gangs had thrown in his way up until now, and the police was only too happy to cooperate with him, as long as they could claim the glory, but he had ran into an unexpected problem.

During a few of his self-imposed missions, he had stumbled upon a few crooks with a weird smell about them. No, Shirou didn't mean they stank, though they did also stink, but that wasn't what he meant at all. Rather he meant he was smelling something on them with his other sense. He had been smelling magic on those people.

And now he did so again. The man laying on the ground here also had a very faint trace of Magecraft on him. Much too weak to suggest he was a Magus himself, just like the others, but potent enough to suggest he had come into contact with Thaumaturgy a lot more often and more intimate than most people. Again, it had been the same for the other crooks.

Shirou did not know what to make of it. The traces were so faint he suspected their contact with the Moonlit world had been years ago for most of the criminals, except for the one in front of him, he'd estimate it had been about one year for him. But why would any being from the Moonlit World interact with these people, without just killing them?

A possible explanation was of course that they'd only had their memories altered by a Magus at some point in their life, but the smell indicated contact over a much longer period of time than just one altercation. It suggested months, or even years of contact for the smell to build up.

The reason he was able to smell this with such precision was of course Mjolnir again. The hammer in his head had made his already so precise sensing-ability skyrocket in terms of sensitivity and range, to the point he could pick up traces from years ago, like he was doing right now.

And those senses were now telling him these crooks from those gangs had something in common.

He would have to look into what connected them then, as it frankly made him very curious. They had not shown signs of any talents that might make them interesting targets for beings from the Moonlit World after all, but they had still been singled out for some reason.

Shirou inhaled deeply, committing the smell to memory. Now that he was actively paying attention to it, he noticed the smell was the same as the one on most of the other criminals.

There had been two smells in total up until now, as far as Shirou knew. The one he was smelling now was one of them, and as said, also the more frequent of the two. The other smell had been less frequent, only two crooks had had it on them.

Though he did not think it would yield any results, he intended to look into the smells a bit more to see if he could find the source. Seeing as that the all of the men had been in relatively good condition however, it did not have a high priority.

For now, having memorised the smell, he would continue taking down the gang in the apartment complex before him. Quickly calling the police ahead of time on a burner phone to alert them of his actions, Shirou jogged towards the building and leapt through the open window on the third floor. Once inside, he made for the nearest wall outlet, which he promptly overloaded with a dose of lightning.

All the lights inside the building went out simultaneously, eliciting shocked cries from all those present except Shirou. The red-haired hero did not waste a second. He opened the door of the room and rushed into the darkness, where his improved and reinforced eyes allowed him to see far better than any ordinary human could.

Quickly reaching the occupied floors and once again easily taking down the flailing crooks with mere taps, Shirou thought back on the past week so far.

After the fateful dinner during which Fuji-nee had exposed a metaphorical goldmine of practice to him, he had been up and about for every night since then, hunting down and catching criminals. Finding them was no problem, nor was taking them down. His new ability to fly coupled with his old ability to reinforce his eyes made tracking down suspicious activity very easy, almost too easy really. He had busted about twelve small groups in the past week, thirteen when including the one he was subduing now. 'To the great delight of the Fujimura-clan', Taiga had later said.

Being a successful vigilante was far from the only thing he had done though. Seeing he needed a mere three hours of sleep or less per day ever since his enhancement, he usually spent the rest of the night hunting evildoers, leaving the day free for other activities.

A large part of that time was taken by his daily visitors, Taiga and Sakura, who were spending the largest part of the holiday at his house. Contrary to what one might belive, he didn't mind their presence in the slightest, only too happy with the company they provided him with. The meals of the day were eaten with the three of them together and the morning were spent either in kendo matches with Fuji-nee or playing boardgames with both her and Sakura.

The afternoons he had for himself though, as the two girls had their own things to take care of at home. During those hours, he worked on his Magecraft and tested his new abilities. He had been making steady progress with both of those in fact, even though he still did not properly know the limits of his new strength.

He had been taking it easy with his Thaumaturgy however, choosing to first properly process his already-made findings in his already almost-overloaded mind, before he would try to make any new discoveries on top of that.

He had however slowly been picking up on his studies into his new capabilities again, as well as working on his already learned skills to make those even better. Shirou had even begun experimenting with the mysterious power inside of him, though with as much caution as he could of course. He was still only capable of generating lightning, but he did have excellent control over that, even being able to shoot small bolts of it at targets of his choice, instead of only having it sparkle around on his hand.

He had not used Mjolnir yet for any fight or training session however. Shirou had been absolutely sure the hammer would do something that would completely astound him yet again, and he simply hadn't thought himself able to handle more surprises at that time. It had just been too much in too short a time.

Now though, after a week of practicing and experimenting, he was ready to be shocked speechless again. Tomorrow night, instead of hunting criminals like he normally would, he had promised Mjolnir that he would train with the hammer itself.

Mjolnir gave an excited thrum from inside his head at that thought, at the prospect of doing something again. Up until now, Shirou had only used the hammer for transportation, and while the hammer had patiently waited until Shirou was ready to use it for something more, it was clearly ready for the next step as well. It had been since the beginning really.

The golden-eyed magus then came out of his musings to find he had defeated the gang. Well, actually, he had defeated it after the first two minutes already. After those, he had just been standing around, lost in thought for a little while longer, staring at nothing in particular.

Now it was time to leave though, before the police could show up and catch a glimpse of him. Call him paranoid, but he would rather have the police had absolutely no clue what he looked like, save for the no doubt vague descriptions the criminals could give them, than have the police know his general appearance. A secret identity was something that could never be retrieved once lost, that was the first thing his dad had told him back when training had begun.

Calling Mjolnir to his hand, Shirou spun the hammer in a by now quite familiar motion, before launching both it and himself into the sky. As he flew over the city, unseen by those below, he managed to pick out his targets for the next time already. You would think those gangs would try to hide themselves when squatting in a normally deserted area, but no, they just walked around, in full sight of anyone who would pass overhead. Lamenting about low intelligence levels, yet slightly grateful at the same time, Shirou memorized the locations and then continued his way home. While he would have preferred taking those people down right now, they did not pose a direct threat to anyone, so immediate action was unneeded. He was done for tonight.

He came down neatly in his own backyard, precisely in his now-customary landing spot. He produced nary a sound, nor did he feel any strain on his legs when he touched the ground. He almost dared say he was getting good at this. Now if only the rest was as easy as flying was to him.

He jogged to the shed, where he had taken to putting away his equipment during the day. And no, he did not mean his armour, as he could just dismiss that, and neither his bow and arrows, which he had traced before the outing and could dismiss at any time as well. What he stored in the shed was his customary outfit.

Shirou had decided, after his second night of catching crooks, that the armour was much too impractical for a vigilante to wear. It was too bright and eye-catching, it had too much of a presence. For all that it provided fantastic protection, it was utterly unfit for stealth and surprise attacks. Eventually, after some thinking, Shirou had opted to wear the armour only when going to fight in open battles and during emergencies. For his self-appointed missions in the dark of the night, he would need another outfit.

What he was wearing currently was an all-black outfit, consisting of tight pants, a form-fitting shirt, a long-sleeved jacket with hood, black gloves, black boots and a mask in front of his lower face. It was quite simple, but it worked just fine. Reinforcing it made it as hard as Kevlar, so it was even enough for protection against bullets, punches and knives. Not that he had been hit even once since that first time though.

"Trace on." The familiar aria was spoken softly, as Shirou altered the composition of the outfit, reducing it from whole pieces of clothing to lose shreds of cloth, wrapped in a bundle. This process could be reverted with another altering, making it very easy for Shirou to hide and take along his outfit wherever he went.

After putting the bundle on one of the shelves in the shed, Shirou went to check up on a few of his ongoing experiments. One of them was a sword he had traced during the second night after he'd found Mjolnir, with the explicit purpose of finding out how long his projections would last. Up until now, it was holding on just fine. Despite him not adding any more Prana to the construct, it was still present and in fairly good condition, even after a week. He'd estimate it had another three weeks to go before it would disappear. Considering a normal projection done by another mage would barely last a couple of hours, that was amazing.

Another experiment were the Runes he had drawn in the shed. Their purpose was to hide any Prana traces and provide extra defenses for the small building. Shirou did not expect them to be needed any time in the near future, but if this experiment went well, he might be able to use these Runes to upgrade the defences of the entire estate.

It had been quite the shock for him when he had first attempted to use a Rune after the fateful night of Mjolnir's arrival. Intending to test their potency now that he had greatly improved reserves, he had drawn one of the simplest of them all, the Rune of fire, _Sowilo_ , adding but a tiny amount of power to the drawing. He had been expecting a small spark to appear, just like every other time he had used this particular Rune.

What he had gotten however was a large burst of very hot and potent fire springing forth from the drawn sign. In fact, if it hadn't been for him cutting of the power behind the spell right away, it might have burned down the entire estate in minutes.

He had been momentarily stupefied at this development. It made no sense for the Rune to be so powerful, he had only added a tiny bit of power after all. That confusion hadn't lasted long, only until he remembered the prominence of Runes in Norse mythology. It would stand to reason that Thor would be unusually skilled with them.

Whacking himself on the head, since that was what Kiritsugu would have done, he opted to be more careful with Runes in the future. His aptitude had improved greatly, and boldly using Thaumaturgy when he did not know the outcome was stupidly dangerous.

That had not stopped him from studying that particular branch of Thaumaturgy more extensively in theory though. If he had gained a high aptitude for Runes through Mjolnir, then he would not let that go to waste. Runes were much too versatile and useful to be ignored, especially by Shirou, who did not have much talent for any other thing. Or, used to not have much talent. He was pretty sure he could do a lot more than before now.

Still, Runes were excellent if you had any talent for them, as the infamous Fraga-clan often proved, so he had immediately set out to look into the subject and gather as much information as he could.

A few days of studying had not yielded much result. The books he possessed were too basic to provide anything beyond the simplest of Runes and the most general of information, all of which he had already memorised and mastered. His dad had not been able to teach him much either, so it appeared he was stuck for the moment.

That is, he had been stuck, until Mjolnir had suddenly started vibrating in excitement. Shirou had been puzzled by that, as he hadn't seen anything to be excited about. As such, he figured Mjolnir had something to do or to tell him again. It had turned out to be the second.

The images he had learned to expect every time Mjolnir wanted to convey something had started entering his mind. In front of his mind's eye, Shirou saw knowledge and Runes flash by at great speed. Too fast for him to make sense of. This whirlwind of information had continued for a while, until the flow had stopped, and he had received knowledge about three new Runes.

One that would hide any magic cast in an area, one that would keep away decay in a house, and one that would hinder any and all Magecraft cast against the estate and anyone within.

Those had been quite useful, if slightly underpowered Runes. Very fit to be used by a beginner, as Mjolnir had no doubt intended. Shirou had promptly cast them over the shed the same afternoon, to test how well they would function.

By now, he could conclude that they were both hidden from others' senses perfectly well, and very much effective at what they did, making them excellent for him to use on the estate. Save for a few bounded fields that kept Prana and sound contained, as well as one that would inform him of intruders, there wasn't much defending the Emiya-estate, nor were any of the spells particularly strong. Improving them with other Bounded Fields would have been difficult for him though, and that would leave traces, and he couldn't have Tohsaka-san picking up any traces of Prana.

These Runes provided a solution. By weaving them into the field surrounding his house, he could strengthen the defensive capabilities while also keeping it hidden from any prying eyes. A godsend really, quite literally.

Beside those Runes, Mjolnir had refused to give him anything more, as these had only been given to him to test his new talent. Shirou would have to progress in ability and power himself, through training and battle, before Mjolnir would show him any others beside those. Shirou had understood the hammer would not budge on this, so he did not try to convince it otherwise.

Having checked up on his projects now, and with his outfit stashed away, Shirou walked back into the main building of the estate, went up the stairs and went to bed for a well-deserved rest.

Before sleep overtook him though, a question popped up in his mind. A question he should have asked himself sooner perhaps. He had received Mjolnir, along with some amazing powers and abilities, of which he probably hadn't even discovered a tenth yet. But he was wondering now, a week after he had received all of this; who would give away such power? And why give to someone like him? A by all means untalented magus with no importance in the greater whole.

Even the weapon itself had not behaved as Shirou had expected it to. Mjolnir had been supportive of his choices from the very beginning, giving advice and being very enthusiastic at helping him whenever he required aid. It seemed to be a kind hammer, indicating perhaps that the previous owner had been that kind of person as well.

That didn't correspond with this world's Thor at all. He, and the rest of the Gods, had been jerks. Now, he had already established that this Mjolnir was from another world, different from his own, but it would seem now that even Thor himself was very different on that world, not just his hammer.

Matters like this filled Shirou's head, making him wonder at last about the past of the hammer which now resided in his head, as well as about the previous wielder who had left such an impression on Mjolnir. All of those matters eventually came together in one question, the one now so prominent in his mind.

' _Who was Thor?'_

* * *

The next afternoon Shirou found himself not in the shed practicing Magecraft for a change, but rather behind his laptop at the dinner table. He had just said goodbye to the girls again after another morning spend together, and was now wrapped up once more in improving his most recently gained abilities.

He wasn't doing so through training or exercising however, not today. He had done that aplenty during the past days. This afternoon, he wanted to learn about Thor himself. To go over all sources to discover the kind of man (god?) the Odinson had been, at least in Shirou's world. And of course, to learn of Thor's abilities as well, since those could very well be Shirou's abilities now.

As such, this afternoon had become a long study session, during which he spent the time looking up information from all kinds of sources. Books, articles, websites both official and not, it didn't matter for now, as long as the subject was the God of Thunder or something closely related to him.

Most of the information was utter nonsense, as was to be expected on the Internet. Most people just made things up to sound knowledgeable, others misquoted the actual sources, and again some others wrote modern stories with Thor as the main character, but had their Thor often not matching the original one. Informative sites often did hold true and useful information, but it was nothing he hadn't already known before.

He was one of the few people on this world that knew Thor had really existed once after all. The books from the Moonlit World were a great deal more informative than any other source the Golden-eyed Magus had access to, that was something Shirou had to admit. He had already read those books however, and none of them were really helpful on what to do if one found themselves with Mjolnir in their head.

It was good however to brush up a bit on the information those few books offered, even if all the knowledge would not really apply, as he had already determined that this Mjolnir was not from the Thor of this world. From what he seen until now however, he could say there were plenty of similarities between them, at least when it came to power and abilities. The lightning for instance was a big point of comparison, as well as the storms that went with that lightning. And the super strength, don't forget the super strength.

The Runes had been another. The Thor of Shirou's world had been a Norse god, so some proficiency with the Script had to be expected. Other Thor also seemed to have talent for them, if Shirou's own greatly improved aptitude was anything to go by. And it seemed a lot of knowledge concerning many Runes was stored inside Mjolnir itself, just like other Thor's powers had been stored inside that hammer. It almost made Shirou wonder what else Mjolnir could be hiding.

Shirou knew the gods in his world had possessed powers far beyond the might of modern Magi, maybe even beyond the True Magics. Not much was known though, as the gods had never been studied properly by objective and dedicated researchers who bothered writing their findings down for the next generations, leaving Shirou with barely anything to go by.

There were some half-hearted theories however, that the immense power of the gods had had something to do with Authority, the ability to command the world to be as you wanted, and some version of a Marble Phantasm slash Reality Marble, but that had never been confirmed by anyone.

He hadn't noticed any of the sort inside himself though. He had gotten the boost in his old abilities as well as the mysterious power, but nothing more as far as he'd seen. But maybe it was for the best that he hadn't gotten the other skills. It wasn't like he needed a Reality Marble after all.

* * *

… _Sword?...SwORd!..._

* * *

After shaking his head to lose the sudden buzz, Shirou refocused on the information he had gathered today. There was still plenty he would have to test, concerning Thor's feats and achievements.

He would have to take some of the stories with a grain of salt though, as he sincerely doubted most of them had happened exactly like they had been written down. And even if the stories had gone precisely as described, with nothing added or taken away over the years, he wouldn't be able to copy the skills Thor had shown in those stories.

There was no way Shirou would be able to lift a snake so big it could wrap itself around the world. Nor would he be able to face the Fenrirwolf when it came down to it. Not the mention the thousand other feats Thor had managed that left Shirou's head spinning now that he really thought about them.

Too focused on the impossibilities of him performing such acts, the golden-eyed teen completely missed the sense of amusement that came from Mjolnir. The kind that one felt when looking at a child that insisted something was impossible, while you yourself knew it would be very easy once the child had grown some more. Mjolnir was looking forwards to the day its new wielder would find out that he could do all of the above, and much more.

Shirou, after getting his head to stop spinning, then searched some more on the internet, but eventually had to call it quits for the day. There really was nothing concrete to be found with the means he had at his disposal. Once again it seemed that for better information, he needed new, better, and more specialised books from the Moonlit World. Rather annoying then that such books were always hard, if not downright impossible to find, as any Magus worth their salt would never willingly part with their priced knowledge.

As for the myths he had found, largely on the internet again, it was nice to know some things he could potentially do now, but all of it was so vague. Then again, expecting detailed descriptions of everything Thor had done in his life was probably too much to ask for, he could acknowledge that. People in that time weren't very literate, and it was over a thousand years ago by now. That coupled with the gods' tendency to not give anything away about their power made for vague stories in the end.

A slight disappointment, but not an insurmountable obstacle. If there were no instructions left for him, he would have to find out for himself then. It would be a tedious task, but the red-haired hero could not deny it filled him with slight anticipation as well. A curious need to discover more about these unknown aspects of himself.

If this was what other Magi felt every time they did research, then perhaps he could understand their drive to reach their goals somewhat better now. Even if many of those Magi went much too far while chasing their dreams. Killing the innocent was never, never acceptable, even if it was an easier way to victory or accomplishments.

Now that he was done with the theoretical part of today's research, even if it hadn't really yielded any concrete results, he was free to move on to the practical side of the matter. After dinner, when Sakura and Fuji-nee would be gone, he would go out to the forest, maybe visit Issei while he was at it, and see for himself what Mjolnir was capable of in a secluded area where no people would show up to interrupt his session.

As expected, the hammer inside of his head could barely suppress its excitement during dinner. Its anticipation and eagerness radiated off it, to the point Shirou himself was influenced by it, making him fidget and shift where he sat, only barely managing to clamp down on the desire to leave for the forest already. Something that was noticed at once by Taiga, who once more showed that she was far more perceptible than most would think.

"Oi, Shirou." She said, looking at him with uncertainty and worry in her gaze. "Are you alright?"

The question was asked out of concern, but Shirou still found he would rather have had that she hadn't spoken to him at all, as he had hoped that his unusual behaviour either would register with the girls, or that they would ignore it. But again, no such luck.

"Ah, yes of course, Fuji-nee." Shirou assured her. "I just find it difficult to find a comfortable position here today." As if. Mjolnir was just being difficult. But he couldn't very well tell Sakura and Taiga that, it would not go over well.

"If you're sure." Taiga said, sounding at least somewhat mollified. Sakura was less so, Shirou noticed, as she kept sending him discreet glances during the whole meal. He made a conscious effort to keep himself still from then on though, so she didn't see anything that could be wrong with her Senpai.

Though he kept smiling serenely on the outside, Shirou was already planning in his mind to give Mjolnir a stern talking to when they were in the forest if it didn't stop radiating excitement like that. It couldn't compromise his control so much when he had company.

As if sensing his intentions, Mjolnir toned down a lot the very next moment, almost appearing sheepish. That was a lot better for the red-haired teen, as he finally settled into a truly comfortable position.

When dinner was over, Shirou's unofficial big (or maybe little) sister and his (according to a certain Tiger) soon-to-be-girlfriend left the estate, promising to be back the next morning. Assuring them one more time that he wasn't training himself too much, as they had been fearing for the entire holiday by now, Shirou then went back inside; Of course, he only stayed there for precisely the amount of time that the girls needed to walk out of sight. The second Taiga had entered her home and Sakura had gone around the corner, Shirou walked out of his house and called Mjolnir to his hand.

Without witnesses around, as it was evening already, and well past dinnertime, Shirou was free to use his hammer's flight-granting ability to shorten his travel time. He had been doing that a lot lately, as it left much more time free for the important things, such as catching criminals, if he shorted his travel-time.

Soaring through the air, he reached the borders of the forest next to the city in mere minutes, if that, as was to be expected, since the forest was at walking distance from his house. Mjolnir could probably have gone a lot faster, but Shirou had set a maximum-speed for himself for now, and he was keeping to it.

As he had planned that afternoon, he first made his way over to the Ryuudou-temple, in order to visit his potential new friend: Ryuudou Issei, the son of the owner of said temple.

The first time the two teens had talked with each other, when Shirou had come by to visit his father's grave, they had gotten along perfectly fine, so they had kept contact ever since. The contact was of course made easier by the fact that Shirou's father laid buried at the temple, which gave the red-haired hero a reason to visit every once in a while.

Arriving at his intended landing spot, Shirou came down on the ground smoothly and softly, soft enough that no ordinary human would ever have been able to perceive the sound he made, even from mere yards away.

He had of course made sure to land a fair distance away from the temple anyway, ensuring no one would see him either or hear him anyway, but landing softly was still the better option. Kiritsugu had not taught him paranoia for nothing after all.

After he'd dismissed the hammer, the rest of the way to the temple was covered by foot.

Arriving at the temple after climbing the long flight of stairs, now feeling the Bounded Field surrounding the place better and clearer than ever, this being the first time he had visited since Mjolnir's arrival, Shirou had an easy time picking out Issei from the present crowd, as the black-haired teen was the only non-adult around at this late an hour. When asked about the other children, Issei had replied he was the oldest, and that the rest had early bedtimes, often leaving him the only child around in the evenings.

Walking over to him, past all the older people who shot him curious glances, Shirou called out a greeting to the one he had come to see.

"Oi, Issei! Over here" He called, in an attempt to draw the teen's attention.

He had not told Issei of this visit in advance, as it had been a spur of the moment decision, so he would have to see whether the other boy was free to talk for a bit. If he was, then they could chat and catch up with each other. If not, then Shirou would have to come back another time to try again.

Shirou assumed his friend would have time to talk though, as Issei always had time to spare for friends. Or at least that was what the young monk always said, and his behaviour until now had not disproven that.

Indeed. Upon looking up from his chore of sweeping the floors at hearing his name called out, Issei gave him a surprised smile as the hard-working teen straightened up his back.

"Good evening Emiya-san. How are you doing this fine evening?" He responded, setting aside his broom for the moment as he turned fully towards Shirou.

"I am well, Issei. Thank you for asking." Shirou replied, crossing the distance between them until there was about two feet between them. "How about yourself? Has anything interesting happened since I last was here? Or do you have anything else you feel the need to tell me?"

"Nothing much had happened, so I do not really have anything to tell you about." Was the calm answer from his friend. "People come and go, everything is nice, peaceful and quiet as it is supposed to be. I did get started on the karate lessons I had been planning to attend, so I suppose that's news."

Shirou smiled at that, as signing up for karate lessons had been something Issei had intended to do for months now, so it was good that he had taken the last step at last. After he had congratulated the young monk with his new hobby, they talked further about topics that interested the two of them. Seeing that both of them were rather mature for their age, they did not talk about games, television shows or the like, but about the recent developments in the city, the upcoming events in the temple, and of course school.

Next year both Shirou and Issei would be progressing to high school. As it turned out, they had both chosen the same school already; that being Homurahara high school. Homurahara had an excellent reputation, being one of the best schools in the city. It was also conveniently located for Shirou and Issei, reachable by foot from Shirou's house and from the temple as well, which was a boon, as the two boys often walked to their destinations, neither of them officially allowed to drive yet. 'Officially' being the keyword for Shirou here.

The discovery of them both going to the same school caused the boys to spend another half an hour talking about the things they expected from Homurahara, as well as discussing any clubs they wanted to sign up for.

Issei wanted to join the Student Council as soon as he could, while Shirou was looking more into kendo and archery. The golden-eyed magus did not doubt that both Issei and he would flourish in their chosen fields, so he had only words of encouragement for the young monk, words said young monk readily returned.

After a while though, the two had to end their conversation, as Issei's father ordered him to continue his chore. Issei himself apologized for cutting their talk short so bluntly, but Shirou didn't mind. Issei simply still had a job to do and he was intruding on it. Issei's father was in the right to send him away, as he was distracting his friend from his work. It was actually quite convenient for the red-haired hero, he had more to do this evening after all.

As he walked out of the temple, down the stairs and out of the Bounded Field, in a firm yet calm stride that covered the distance swiftly but did not give the impression of hasting, Shirou scanned the surrounding area for any place where a lot of lightning, fire, and violence would go unnoticed by the people of the city. Such a spot was not easily found near the town itself though, and he realized he'd have to go deeper into the forest to find such a convenient place.

Continuing his brisk pace until he was well away from the sights of anyone within or around the temple, Shirou mentally made a check-list of things he wanted to test about Mjolnir once he had found a quiet spot for himself. After once more making sure no one was within sight, Shirou summoned Mjolnir from his head and took to the skies again.

Shirou had practiced with his Magecraft in this very same forest before. Those times however he had not gone very far into the woods, as there had been no need to. Reinforcement, Projection and Alteration weren't very flashy or loud skills after all.

This time though, as said before, he was planning to unleash the power of a divine weapon. That would be both flashy and loud, so he'd have to be a great distance away from any kind of civilisation in order to remain undetected. Then he'd cast the Prana-hiding Rune around him, just to be safe, before beginning with his tests. A little paranoid maybe, but the red-haired magus saw no use in taking any kind of risk.

After another few minutes of flying and searching the ground under him, he arrived at a spot that seemed made for the purpose of practicing powerful Thaumaturgy in secret. It was a fairly big clearing, with a small pond next to it. It was very deep into the forest, far away from any official and unofficial paths or living areas. Trees surrounded it on three sides, with the lake bordering it at the West side. The clearing itself was about a hundred yards long and wide at the minimum, so there was plenty of space to move around and cast spells in. There even was a small rock-formation in the middle of the open field, where Shirou could aim his more destructive Magecraft at to see what kind of damage it would do. In the clearing itself was only grass, clover, and a few flowers. No bushes and roots that could potentially be a hindrance to him anywhere in the open space. It was perfect. Almost too perfect.

The golden-eyed magus would have been suspicious that he had stumbled upon a place like this after only a couple of minutes of searching, if it hadn't been for the complete lack of any smell, aura, or visual sign that would indicate the presence, past or present, of anything unnatural. Neither was there any sign of mundane human intervention. He was not completely sure of course, but Shirou was fairly confident in saying this place was created by nature itself, and as such relatively safe for him to use to work on his secret abilities. The only thing that might have convinced him otherwise was the strange crack in the biggest rock of the formation in the middle of the clearing. It was shaped precisely in the form of a capital B. This could just be a natural phenomenon however, so Shirou didn't worry about it too much. If people or beings other than human would come here, he would sense them from miles away and he'd be gone in the blink of an eye.

After he landed in the open place, he did not dismiss Mjolnir this time. He kept it in his hand, lifting it to eyelevel to observe it closely once more. It hadn't changed at all in the past week, but Shirou hadn't expected it to change anyway, so that was okay. Examining it closely like this, he had to admit that the craftsmanship of the hammer was extraordinary; with no sign of damage, lack of maintenance, or even a single mistake during the process of its creation. It was smooth, pristine, powerful as hell, and above all, very much sentient. Its durability must be off the charts as well. Whoever made this weapon must have been an absolute master at forging to be able to create something like this. Absently, Shirou noted it was a little strange he was getting so worked up over the craftsmanship of Mjolnir, but he couldn't help it. He'd always been like that, admiring of the old masters who had crafted weapons with their own hands. Maybe he should try his hand at crafting somewhere in the future, especially forging seemed interesting enough.

Filing it away in his memory, Shirou smiled at the weapon.

"Thank you for your patience, Mjolnir. I know the wait must have been boring for you, but I appreciate that you remained patient until I was ready to start testing my and your capabilities. I suppose the time has come at last, so let's begin."

The weapon gave a hum in response, from which Shirou could decipher two meanings. One that said the hammer was glad to have helped with anything Shirou was doing, even if that meant remaining inside his head for most of the time. The other however said to cut out the mushy stuff and start wielding it properly already.

Electing to stop stalling and listen to the second meaning, Shirou stretched out his right arm, Mjolnir still firmly gripped in that hand, the hammer pointing forwards at a slightly upwards angle. Shirou took a deep breath, and then another one, bringing down the rate at which his heart was beating and making his mind as peaceful as he could.

The red-haired hero then closed his eyes and reached inside himself, into his soul, where the mysterious power laid waiting for his commands, ready to come forth at the slightest of mental nudges. That was good, because tonight, Shirou wanted it to come forth with a vengeance. Mjolnir was aimed at the rocks in the middle of the clearing. With no living creature that might get hurt from the coming violence nearby, now was the time to truly see what the divine tool was capable of in Shirou's hands, even if it was only a glimpse of the weapon's true potential.

Shirou took hold of the power, letting it spread through his entire body, where it once again gave off the pleasant warmth he felt every time he used his Magecraft. Then, when he felt he had a solid handle on the power, he pushed a tiny little bit of it outwards from his right hand, sending it through the hammer, which was still aimed at the rock formation.

A mere week ago, the only thing he could have done was blasting the rocks with raw power, hoping for a good kind of result, as he was unable to make the mysterious power do what he wanted it to do. All that was possible for him back then was to aim for a bit and then pray for the best. But he had learned a great deal in that past week. By now, he had realized the mysterious new power could do many different things depending on what Shirou wanted it to do. It could manifest at as lightning, fire, or just energy. It could empower Runes, and reinforce and improve Bounded Fields. According to Mjolnir, it could do even more than that in the future if Shirou was willing to practice and invest much of his time into it. There was no shortage of possibilities to choose from if Shirou wanted to do damage. The golden-eyed magus however wanted to test one thing before anything else.

Before he would experiment with the more esoteric abilities the hammer could display, he would like to see Thor's most basic attack for himself, a variant of the first spell he had cast using the mysterious power, back on the second night since the one when he had obtained Mjolnir.

He made sure to concentrate hard, directing all of his focus towards shaping the energy, forcing the power to come out in the form he wanted it to. Thor's primary attack; Lightning.

And lightning indeed sprang forth. A full blast of it was fired off from Mjolnir, travelling at insane speeds towards its target, reaching it in milliseconds at most. It was only because of his enhanced speed and perception that Shirou was able to follow its path at all. It was a lightning bolt that would have been right at home in the greatest of thunderstorms. Any mortal standing in its way would be obliterated without a doubt.

The stone that bore the brunt of the attack did not fare much better than said mortal would have. Upon being hit by Shirou's lightning, the rocks at the front of the formation were pulverized, a deep crater struck into the small hill made of stone. Little fragments were being send in all directions from the force of the explosion caused by the sheer power of the attack. Unfortunately, 'all directions' included Shirou's direction.

Stupefied by the sheer destruction he had wrought with only a bit of power, Shirou was too late to lift his hands to protect his face, or generally take any other action to shield his more vulnerable parts against the onslaught of stone fragments coming his way.

Now, if Shirou had only received the hammer, and nothing more, at the beginning of this story, the hail would have been a large problem. However, as you have all read, Thor had seen it fit to send his own essence along with Mjolnir, to be used by the next wielder of the hammer. And when Shirou had picked up the hammer from where it had come down, the essence had been absorbed by him. And though it was still largely unused and dormant, it had by that time already increased the red-haired Magus' durability enough to defend him against simple shards of rock.

The red-haired hero saw and felt to his astonishment that the fragments send at him just bounced off his skin. Fragments that should have torn into his flesh with ease were now being deflected as if they were ping-pong balls thrown by a child.

This would have been understandable if he had been wearing his proven-to-be-bulletproof armour, but he wasn't. He was just wearing normal loose-fitting clothes, the same as he'd worn all day, as he hadn't seen the need to put on his vigilante-apparel for a secret outing with the purpose of training alone. Besides, he could summon his magical armour at any time he wanted, should he ever need it.

The shirt he had on was indeed torn to pieces by the shards, as it was but a mundane shirt of cotton, but his skin was completely unmarred. Shirou mulled this surprising development over in his head for a few moments, unsure what to think of it, before chalking this up as another enhancement granted to him by the divine weapon in his hand. It wasn't that farfetched, seeing that Mjolnir had also improved his strength and speed by a lot. It stood to reason that his durability was included in the list.

Now the matter of the deflected stone fragments had been settled, he continued with his primary objective of the night, that being testing Mjolnir, not himself. He could go over this newly discovered enhancement later this week.

So for now, he would be checking the damage the lightning bolt had done to his targets, instead of examining his skin closer. Walking over to the small hill, Shirou took note of the lack of rocks at the place he had been aiming at. There was only empty space, at a place where he was pretty sure had been rocks only minutes ago, before he had fired the bolt at them.

Well, at least now he knew where the shards had come from.

' _To think I completely obliterated them.'_ He mused to himself, his surprise increasing yet again. _'I guess restraint is going to be even more important from now on, if this is what a tiny bit of power put into the most basic attack in Thor's arsenal is capable of.'_

Nodding once, Shirou decided to not let this unexpected development stop him. He would conduct his experiments now and he could work out any surprises and sudden happenings later, when he was back at home. That went for his unexpected durability, the sudden destructive potential of Mjolnir, and everything else he might stumble upon from now on during the testing. Tonight, he would go through a trail run with the hammer. Basically, act now, think later.

And so he did. After having tested his ability to shoot lightning out of his hammer, Shirou moved on to the usage of simple brute force. Thor was said to have been able to create valleys and break mountains with his punches alone, and Shirou wondered whether he had received a bit of that enormous strength. He hadn't thought so in the beginning, believing he had just been enhanced a bit, but seeing for himself that he had increased durability, as well as having Mjolnir's word to the contrary, made him think twice about that.

Just to experiment, he put Mjolnir aside for a moment, drew back his fist again, and then punched the rocks in front of him with said bare fist, all of his not-inconsiderable strength put behind that one blow.

That one blow proved enough to shatter the boulder he had chosen to punch, proving to Shirou once more that calm taps were the absolute maximum of what he could dish out when fighting mundane criminals. His fist had broken the stone as easily as if it were a breadstick. Even with reinforcement, he wouldn't have been able to do such a thing so easily before. It was amazing.

Picking up Mjolnir again, Shirou moved towards another boulder, planning to test the strength of the strikes he could deliver when using Mjolnir as it was meant to be used, as a hammer. So without further ado, he swung the hammer leisurely, not seeing any reason to put much strength behind it for now, aimed right at the poor rock in front of him, suspecting it too would shatter into pieces upon being hit by the weapon, just like the other boulders had shattered when hit by his lightning and his fists.

'BOOM'

And as it turned out, the rock did in fact shatter. And so did most of the boulders surrounding it. Oh, and the ground cratered as well, cracks appearing in a circle with Mjolnir at the very center. The earth also literally dented, as if another rock weighing ten tons had dropped there from fifty miles high.

Yet another mind-blowing testament to his strength, but Shirou did not stop to stare and gape, as he would have done normally. He did not have the time to waste on that, as he wanted to get at least the simplest techniques done with. Preferably before the hour grew too late.

Next up was the hammer throw. Mjolnir had shown him enough images of the procedure to know how he was supposed to execute such a technique. As such, he drew back his arm, aimed for the pond next to the clearing, and threw the hammer with all of his might. The reason he had chosen the pond to aim at was because the water would absorb most of the force behind Mjolnir quite efficiently without there being overly much destruction.

Still, the result of casting a divine weapon at a simple lake turned out to be quite noticeable and apparent. The explosion of force at the point of contact between the hammer and the lake's surface sent half of the water flying thirty feet up in the air. It also made the lakeshore nearest to the place where Mjolnir had hit crumble like a dry cake. This was because the throw had caused a small Earthquake to occur around the place of impact.

Now the hammer laid at the bottom of the pond. Not fancying a swim at the moment, the golden-eyed magus then held out his open hand and, in accordance with the divine weapon's instructions, called Mjolnir back him;

"Mjolnir! To me!"

The command could of course have been given mentally, but Shirou just wanted to vocalize it since it was the first time he had used the technique, it also sounded pretty cool. He would definitely shout out something like that if he wanted to make a good impression in a fight. Maybe he could use those catchphrases he had floating around in his head somewhere in the future as well?

A scant few seconds later, Mjolnir had returned to him, as had been commanded. The hammer burst forth from the lake, flying towards its wielder at a speed comparable to the speed it had been thrown with a minute earlier. Shirou however had no problem at all catching the weapon and absorbing the force behind it.

Upon feeling Mjolnir's handle securely in his hand again, Shirou lifted the hammer and used it to draw the Rune of fire in the air, making sure to point it upwards so he wouldn't burn down the forest, or himself.

It was a good thing he had chosen to do so, for the fire storm that roared into existence at the completion of the Rune would have turned the forest into an inferno right away if it had been aimed at the treeline. Even aimed towards the sky it was almost enough to set fire to Shirou's surroundings through sheer heat alone.

Despite the risk of immolation through forest fire though, not that it was a real risk of course, he was both reasonably fire-proof and he could fly away at any time, Shirou felt a grin come to his face. All of this power, of which he had been using mere drops, was now at his disposal. Being a hero had never been this close for him. Soon, he would be able to go out and help people, to actually save everyone, as he had promised both himself and his dad.

For now though, he needed to sit down for a bit.

The excitement and extensive power use of the last few minutes were catching up to him, as he had used more of the mysterious power in these few minutes than he had during the instances of the past week combined. He had to rest for a few moments, to catch his breath. Though what he had done wasn't very draining or exhausting, as he had been keeping it relatively calm and easy, this was still the most power he had ever channeled in such a short time, even when taking the years before Mjolnir into account. That coupled with the constant shock he felt at the scope and intensity of his powers did take a lot out of him.

He was very satisfied with the results though. As said before, being a Hero of Justice had become an attainable goal for him now, instead of only a distant dream.

Okay, admittedly, it had always been an attainable goal, as he would have worked, trained, and struggled, until he had become a hero, but now he could almost say he already was a Hero of Justice. All thanks to Mjolnir.

Grinning down at the weapon still held in his hand, he praised it in a soft voice, yet with an undertone that belied his satisfaction: "This is awesome, Mjolnir. I still do not know why you choose me of all people, but I will strive to be worthy of wielding you. That I guarantee."

Then, after hesitating for a few seconds, he continued, his voice lowering even more, as he almost looked away from the hammer in demureness. He would now ask a question he had been walking around with since the beginning, and he had to admit the answer unnerved him:

"Do you know, perhaps, what Thor would have thought of me?"

It might not actually be all that important what the opinion of hammer's previous wielder would have been, but seeing that he was using Thor's weapon and power now, he still wanted to know if the god would have approved of both his actions until now and of his plans for the future.

After he'd asked his question, the hammer remained silent at first, though Shirou could feel it having an internal debate with itself.

Eventually, the hammer seemed to come to a decision, as the debate stopped. The first thing the divine tool did then was send him an image, of Shirou himself laying against a tree at the edge of clearing.

It appeared that Mjolnir wanted him to sit down for this.

Seeing no problem with that, as he had been planning to take some rest anyway, Shirou turned around on the spot, walked to the edge of the open field, and then sat down against a tree, leaning back against it. In this position, he was looking at the sky, filled with stars, far more than he could have seen from inside the city.

Air pollution was such a terrible thing. All pollution was horrendous, period. It was one of the main causes for Gaia to try and extinguish humanity in fact, as it was one of the ways humans were rapidly destroying Earth as it was now. Shirou actually wondered what Gaia was thinking right now. Murderous thoughts? Regretful thoughts? Was she suffering?

...

Discarding the morose train of thought that had sprung up from the depths of his mind, Shirou focused on his surroundings again. It was very peaceful here, despite the immense violence just displayed by him in the near vicinity.

It was quite relaxing to sit down like this as well, but he still had something to do. Mjolnir must have ordered him to sit down for a reason, so he redirected his attention towards the mighty weapon he held in his right hand.

"Is there anything you wish to show me?" He asked, no hesitation in his voice. If he had to sit down before Mjolnir would take actions, then it was probably the case that the hammer had something to say. It probably wanted to tell him something, something big.

A feeling of agreement came from Mjolnir, followed by a sudden harsh thrum that took Shirou by surprise somewhat. The thrum soon ceased however, and the hammer went still again. It didn't last though, as sparks of lightning started to dance over the hammer's surface and the inscription on the side lit up blue. And then, without further warning, a tidal wave of information flooded Shirou's mind.

It was far too much information at once to be able to remember it all, or even most of it. The largest part of the info just slipped his mind again. Yet, Shirou saw and remembered enough to get at least somewhat of a coherent picture of what he was now being shown.

It was someone's life he was seeing, that much he could determine from it. And not just any life of any random being, living a comfortable eighty-years long life. This was the life of a god, a life lasting thousands of years.

He saw a young boy, full of dreams of glory and righteous battle, wanting to protect and save as many people as he could. A dream supported by his mother and approved of by his father. He watched as the boy grew older, gaining a new brother and many friends, but forgetting himself in battle-lust and the need for mere glory as opposed to saving and serving the masses.

He could see the boy being punished for his hubris by his father, how it humbled him and brought him back on the right path, the man once more remembering who he truly was. He saw the man make more friends, find enemies, and gain fond memories of them all.

Shirou saw the man experience happiness and hope, sadness and loss, grief and despair. The man lost many things, coming close to losing it all, but he persisted and fought for what was right, at the side of those who were his family. He saw how the tenaciousness brought the man supreme power, used only to protect and save.

Shirou realized this could only be Thor himself he was seeing. Thor, who had not given up even when all seemed eternally bleak and dark at once. Even when everything around him came apart at the seams, Thor held on to what was right, he fought, and eventually, he won.

Shirou did not see much of the ending of Thor's life, but he could feel, somehow, through Mjolnir, that it had been a happy ending. Just like the Odinson had deserved at the end of the long road he had traveled to become as great a man as he could be.

Shirou must have sat there for at least an hour, and still he had seen only flashes and shards of the total memories of the hero that had wielded Mjolnir before him. Very low on details, it did not give Shirou anything new to work with in training. It had been more of a set of emotions and learning processes than actual words and images really. He had seen only Thor, not the friends and enemies Thor had made and not the locations where Thor had been in his life. Mjolnir had only conveyed great moments and happenings, not things useful for training or even any real information about Thor.

Instead, it had given him something far better. It had shown him the sheer conviction and tenaciousness that Thor had possessed, the drive he'd had to improve himself ever more in order to protect everyone and everything around him. It had shown him that heroes could in fact have a happy ending where they saved everyone.

Seeing the extent of Thor's heroics, how he saved people everywhere and under any circumstances, made Shirou realize he was being very short-sighted in his own actions. He had limited himself to the small gangs of Fuyuki-City, never going beyond the borders, never even thinking about going further than just his home-town. He had received a divine weapon and he was only using it to hammer in nails, so to speak.

That did not mean of course that stopping and apprehending the gangs was an unworthy pursuit, it was more that the red-haired hero had not made any plans beyond that, for when all the gangs had been stopped. A big oversight on his part really. What had he been planning to do after defeating all gangs in the city? Just hang around waiting for more of them to come to him?

Even before Mjolnir had arrived he had been making plans about stepping up his game, about entering the Moonlit World even. Why had he not developed those plans further with the new additions to his arsenal? He could now see that just staying in Fuyuki-city was an enormous waste of his potential. It seemed that receiving the hammer had made him lax in his ambitions, too distracting from the planning that had been drilled into him by his father. There were many more people to save everywhere around the world, they were just waiting for him. And not only in Fuyuki-city were enemies to defeat.

There were more gangs to stop in other cities, criminal king-pins to catch, kidnapped people to save, fights between opposing factions to break up. And that was only in the Mundane World.

Yes, Shirou had now seen that his insistence to not get involved with the Moonlit World for the coming years was contrary to his dream to save all. There were so many people to save and true monsters to battle in that facet in the world, and he, Emiya Shirou, would no longer stand aside. He had had a reason to not get involved yet, as he hadn't been strong enough, but he didn't have that excuse anymore.

He would get stronger, master the abilities he had gotten from Mjolnir and unlock new ones. Before Mjolnir had arrived, he had been training himself to the absolute maximum with the little amount of talent he had. There was no reason to stop doing so now that he had more power than he could have ever dreamed. He would be the best he could, not allowing himself to slacken.

He knew it would be a while before he was mighty enough to truly make a difference, to successfully save all people involved, but that didn't matter at this moment. Even if he could only save one person for now, that would be worth it. Not that he intended to be satisfied with only that of course.

He had seen it in Thor's memories; it was in fact possible to save everyone. All it took was tenaciousness and power in great quantities. The first of those he had always had and the second he would obtain soon when mastering Mjolnir. No more excuses, it was time to go forth and accept the responsibility that came with the power.

It was his duty to save people. He had to do so. He, Emiya Shirou, who had been saved were everyone else died a horrible death. He had had no right to live on, it was only sheer coincidence that had led Kiritsugu to him. He was guilty of abandoning them all, when he walked passed the other victims to live a moment longer. There was no reason why it had been him that survived, but he would work as hard as he could to redeem himself for his sins.

But his question had not been answered yet. He had asked Mjolnir what the Thor of Mjolnir's world would have though of him had the god been able to see him. The weapon had responded with the memories, but could he really draw a conclusion from those?

An amused hum at his side gave the answer. He had already thought so based on the fragments of memory, and the hammer itself confirmed it once and for all now.

Thor would have been proud of him.

Shirou rose the hand holding Mjolnir in the sky, in both a firm pledge to be the very best he could be, and in an attempt to unleash a technique he had seen Thor use in the memories, the last thing he would try today. He channelled the mysterious power through the hammer, calling upon it to create that what was always associated with Thor, that what Shirou had always admired ever since he was young.

A thunderstorm.

And before his eyes, as he channelled more and more of the power, massive, dark thunderclouds gathered overhead. The wind picked up, blowing through the clearing with great force. And as Shirou kept adding power to the storm, rain began pouring down, soaking everything in sight.

The wind began spiraling, taking the clouds with it in its path, with Shirou in the very eye of the storm. Said storm, though not spread over a large area, was raging and powerful, the gales of wind now tearing the branches of the trees.

And in the middle of it all, Shirou stood, proudly upright with Mjolnir still pointed to the sky. Then, as a coup de grace, lightning came down from the clouds, striking Mjolnir and going through it to Shirou, flooding his body with its power.

Yet Shirou was not hurt by the lightning, he was only empowered by it. Lightning was a part of him now, it could never hurt him, only strengthen him. As lightning bolt after lightning bolt came down on him in a display that would have baffled even the greatest of Magi, Shirou suddenly realized one very important thing.

' _I forgot to draw the magic-supressing Runes.'_

Indeed, in his eagerness to begin experimenting, he had completely passed up on making sure no traces of his magic use would be apparent. He had just started experimenting right away without remembering to hide himself and his magic from anyone outside of the clearing.

The wind fell down immediately at that, and Shirou just stood there, feeling very idiotic altogether. Now everyone with some potential in Magecraft in the near vicinity, including Tohsaka, would have felt him doing all of this.

A great oversight, and a source of embarrassment for the teen, but no fatal mistake just yet. There was no one around after all, and he had not used Prana here today.

If he had used Prana, forgetting the Runes would have been disastrous, but he hadn't. He had used the mysterious power, and from own experience, he knew it was still far enough removed from the normal powersource that there was a rather large chance that most people would actually write this off as 'just a strange happening'.

At least, Shirou hoped they would.

Still, he would have to remember drawing the Runes next time he did something like this. Especially if he was ever going to use magic while actually being near civilisation.

Redirecting his attention towards the lightning after committing his own advice to memory, Shirou felt a small grin come to his face. Really, he had been smiling and grinning more in the past week than he'd had in years.

"Mjolnir." He began, feeling he should make this moment somewhat more memorable, and wanting to make a promise to the hammer. "Once more I thank you for choosing me for the honour of wielding you. I promise you that I will not squander the power. I will get stronger and wiser, until I can make my dream come true. I will protect all those around me, I will fight against evil, and one day…

…I will save everyone!"

And with those words, a massive thunderclap filled the sky, a lightning bolt of epic proportions striking directly into Mjolnir from the highest of the heavens. And as the golden-eyed soon-to-be-god took towards the sky, a great Being, present yet not at the same time, felt pride fill its old heart.

* * *

 **And done.**

 **Well then, that was hard. I wanted to introduce Shirou to Thor, so our favourite hero and third-rate magus could see for himself what kind of god he was. It was difficult however to convey that information without showing Shirou too much. I didn't want him to know about the other universes yet, or about the numerous aliens, or the cosmic Multiversal beings that are so widespread through the Omniverse, or about Thor not being a god, but more of a highly evolved alien. So I tried to do it this way, with mainly emotions and small shards of memory being shown, but I don't know if it's any good. Your thoughts?**

 **Of course, if you think this was all nonsense and annoying, feel free to call it as such, but take from it that Shirou's ambitions are now higher than before and he knows a bit more about Thor.**

 **Shirou has now been spurred on to undertake some real action. I wanted to make clear that it really was a change of minds for him to go from 'slight beginnings with heroics' to 'let's save all the people world-wide'. So I wrote the turning point for him and let him train with Mjolnir for a bit. Perhaps I can now start going through everything faster without having to explain a lot of trivia, but no promises.**

 **Our favourite hero won't go full Rune-King Thor anytime soon though, that would make for a boring story. So no brawls with Primate Murder or ORT the next chapter, that will occur somewhere in the future. Not sure when precisely.**

 **I also started an arc in the beginning of the chapter, with the whole criminals smelling like magic business. That should occupy some time, allow Shirou to get some real battle experience and will show him what a monumental task it is to save everyone. Oh, and it will have a magical ending.**

 **I hope I can have a moment soon where I make Shirou realize that bad guys are sometimes beyond saving, but as he is still a young Shirou now, he'll be trying to save those guys too. I hope to change that very fast though, in this arc if possible.**

 **And yes, I am planning to have Shirou save Sakura before the Grail War, but it can't be now, he has to learn some cleansing magic first and get powerful enough to kill Zouken quickly, efficiently and completely. He is well on his way though, and it shouldn't be very long now.**

 **And I have one more question. Should I include Gaia herself in this story? And if yes, how? As an antagonist? An antagonist that becomes a good girl when realizing that Shirou is now sort of her son and can help her a great deal? (remember here that the Odin Force/Shirou Force can also fix planets rather easily. Cleaning up pollution and bringing back forests and all that should be no problem for a Skyfather from Marvel.) Maybe I should make her a mother hen from the beginning?**

 **I myself am leaning towards the second option if I have her appear at all.**

 **Keep in mind here though that even as full-on antagonist Gaia can't do much to or against Shirou, as the Beyonder and the Living Tribunal are still keeping a close eye on things after all.**

 **Ted says goodbye for now.**

 **Edited later for better flow and choice of words.**


	8. Follow the Trail

**Follow the trail**

' _And then some herbs to finish it. Yes, this should make for a good meal to celebrate the end of the holiday.'_

Emiya Shirou was currently wrapped up in one of his most important tasks of the day: doing groceries. A daily task of his that he always completed with vigour. He had guests to feed after all and he couldn't afford to have nothing to work with in his kitchen when they arrived at his home. Letting people go hungry would be against everything he stood for.

Now, doing groceries would normally not be very difficult for him, or indeed difficult at all, as he did it almost every day with great success and ease, often taking no more than an hour or so. One learned how to shop efficiently after a while if one had to shop every day in order to feed a hungry Tiger.

What made it slightly harder and more time-consuming today however was that Shirou was intending to make dinner tonight extra special, so in order to obtain the best and most fitting ingredients, he had to visit many speciality shops and stores to collect everything he needed for his cooking. That meant it took over double the time it would normally cost him.

Not that such a thing mattered to Shirou. It wasn't a big deal or real problem for him that doing groceries was taking more time and effort today than it normally would have, the difficulty of his self-imposed chore did not even register with him as he went by all the shops at walking distance from his house. Working a little harder had never been an issue for Shirou, especially not if it was for a good cause.

The good cause being here that he wanted to throw a small party tonight at his home with the important people in his life. To mark the end of the break and to announce the beginning of the second half year of the schoolyear. Privately, he also considered it a small celebration for the completion of another task of his, but more on that later.

He had invited Sakura and Taiga of course, his oldest and dearest friends-slash-family members, and he had added Issei to the list as well, with the intention of strengthening their budding friendship some more. I probably also wouldn't hurt to introduce him to Sakura and Taiga as soon as possible.

But the list pretty much ended with that, with only old man Raiga half-heartedly promising to maybe stop by for a few minutes.

It should come to no one's surprise that Shirou did not exactly have many friends. In fact, as said before, the number was pretty much limited to three people. For the rest, most other children in his peer group weren't all that interested in interacting with him, and neither were most adults really, as he was at that age where adults still thought him to be an immature schoolboy, despite any evidence he may have presented to the contrary.

At his school, he was considered somewhat weird, with his disposition to be helpful to anyone and his willingness to sacrifice his time and prior plans every time someone asked for his aid. A large part of his time at school was actually spend repairing school equipment, which apparently did not endear him to the other young teens. Most of his peers just saw him as a suck-up or a doormat, not friend material by any stretch of the word. The adults on the other hand would never consider any child a possible friend. A camaraderie between teacher and student was an anathema for them, as they were proper educators who knew etiquette.

People might have thought that to be cruel of his class-mates and teachers, and might pity poor, friendless Shirou who was kind of an outcast among his peers, but Shirou himself didn't mind it all that much. It was probably for the best his peers did not befriend him, as he was generally much too busy chasing after his dream to participate in their usual activities. A friendship won't last if you never really interact with each other after all. Besides, the levels of maturity were quite different between Shirou and the rest. Of all the people from his age-group he had met, only Sakura and Issei came anywhere close to him in terms of maturity. The rest just fell somewhat, or quite often completely, short.

Not that Shirou would be averse to having an immature friend, he was getting along just fine with Taiga after all, but it seemed both his disposition to be helpful to anyone and his maturity level did scare away any potential less-mature friends, contrary to what you might believe at first.

Though, again, he generally did not mind. It was nevertheless somewhat of a shame he did not have more friends, especially today, because he would have in fact liked it to invite more people to his small celebration this evening. The more the merrier they always say, and he could easily house at least one other person in the estate without it getting even close to crammed. Sakura and Issei could probably use more friends as well, so he could have used the party as an introduction between them.

Shirou discarded this train of thought, deciding that moping over the lack of friends he had would not be of any use. It wasn't like he could just make another friend appear out of nothing today before the party this evening.

In order for that to happen, he would have to walk into another reasonably mature person before this shopping trip was over, and immediately hit it off with said person enough to invite them to his house. The chances of that happening were pretty close to zero, for both the first and the last condition.

With that in mind, Shirou redirected his attention elsewhere, to something that was more important, and he had the ability to actually influence. Not his shopping trip of today, as he had just about finished that chore by now, but rather his clandestine, nightly missions.

It was rather unusual for Shirou to think about those during a shopping trip, as he had the tendency to not spend much time thinking about his outings outside of training and the missions themselves, as he preferred to keep hero business and normal life separated. That was both easier on his mind and lessened the chance of someone close to him getting suspicious because of abnormal behaviour. Yet another piece of wisdom Kiritsugu had bestowed upon him.

Today he did think of them during his shopping however, because they actually tied into it. The party this evening was not only being thrown to mark the end of the holidays and the beginning of school, but also to celebrate the milestone he would reach tonight.

Over the course of the holiday, the full two weeks with only sometimes a night exempt, the golden-eyed magus had rolled up just about every gang in the city that he could find himself or learn anything about through his sources sources (meaning Taiga). In fact, this very night he would go out to apprehend the last of them, just in time before school would begin; such a happy coincidence. The location was already known, all that was left for him was to strike the gang down and end their corrupting influence on the city forever.

The last of them as far as he and the Fujimura-clan knew of course. It was absolutely not guaranteed that this was truly the last one of them all, as new ones could be moving in at any time, forcing him to start all over again. Besides that, he had indeed stopped all of the active gangs in the city, save for the one he would target tonight, but that did not mean he had removed every criminal there was.

It was very much possible there were still crooks in Fuyuki-City, only better hidden than the very much overt and bumbling drug gangs. Crooks doing crimes like fraud, white-washing fake money, and ripping off ordinary people. The sort of crimes that were hard to spot and harder to prove. And that was not even mentioning the lone wolves in the city who did their crimes all alone, like muggers and abusers. Those were really hard to catch consistently.

He had also paid a lot of attention to the rumours about gangs having their headquarters and trading centers here in Fuyuki-City, while the members of those gangs were very careful about only acting out in other cities to throw the police, and him now too, off their trail.

To catch those crooks, he would have to search the entire town manually, as they wouldn't leave any traces for him to follow to them, or he would have to go to those other cities to interrogate their members located there.

As going to other cities was exactly his plan, Shirou had decided to pick the second option for now. Searching the entire town manually seemed wholly inefficient and too time-consuming. Perhaps he could also use informants later to tell him the location of these secret gangs, provided he could ever find himself informants of course.

So this gang might not be the last he'd have to hunt in Fuyuki-City in absolute terms, but it was the last on Taiga's watchlist, so that was something at least. It also happened to be the last gang Shirou was planning to actively target before moving on to other cities, so it was a special enough event to dedicate part of a celebration to. Provided everything went according to plan of course, and that was by no means guaranteed.

Before he could actually go to other towns and districts, as he had planned, he knew he would have to wrap up another very important matter in Fuyuki-City. One that he better not put off, and one that could seriously delay his foraging into other cities depending on its consequences.

During his outings of the past two weeks, he had found and apprehended more and more criminals and crooks that smelled of magic. He had noticed this matter before, but had chosen not to act on it as he hadn't deemed it very important at the time. The magic traces had been old and the people bearing them had been in good health, which excluded experimenting by Magi and bites from Dead Apostles as possible sources of the smell, so he had seen no reason to actively pursue the source, whatever it may be, though he had wondered quite a lot about this matter even from the very beginning.

He saw now that believing it not to be important had been a large mistake on his part. Though he had only encountered old traces in the first week, indicating it had been years since those criminals had come into contact with the mysterious source of the smell, he had found far more recent traces of Prana during the last days, again on the criminals belonging to many different gangs.

The smell of the magic had been the same, indicating that it had been the same person(s?) every time to cast the spells over the crooks. Clearly these people (beings?) wanted something from the gang members, but seeing that, like he had said before, they had been in good health made him really wonder what exactly the criminals could have done for the spellcasters.

It had to be something really worthwhile that the criminals could give to the Magecraft users, as the traces and smells indicated this whole spellcasting had been going on for years. No Magus would put that much effort into something unless it would pay off.

Looking back, it had been a mistake to not interrogate the criminals the moment he had smelled magic on them. It wouldn't have been all that hard, with the sheer number of them he had encountered during his trips. Just taking one aside for a few minutes would have been child's play. He hadn't questioned them back then and doing so now would be harder, as they would be located currently in the police station or in prison.

And as he really didn't fancy visiting such a place, filled with people that would try to stop him, but who he really shouldn't hurt, he could only hope he would encounter another criminal smelling like Prana tonight.

Should there not be such a person among the gang, or if it turned out said person did not have enough information, then Shirou would be forced to break into the police station to obtain more information through the questioning of already arrested criminals.

If it was possible, Shirou would rather not resort to the second option at all, but he was prepared to do what was necessary should the need arise.

It didn't even have to be very difficult. He had already been doing stake-outs to watch the police station even before Mjolnir had come down into his life, one had to know one's rivals after all, and he had been forced to admit eventually that the officers were very lax. As in, dump as much work on someone else's desk as possible and then some more-kind of lax.

Normally this would not be a good thing at all, and a source of frustration for the golden-eyed magus, but it was very convenient for him now. That laxness coupled with Shirou's magic and stealth-skills made him pretty confident he could successfully pull off a break-in if he had just a bit of luck working for him. Hypnotizing especially would help him a great deal here.

But he would see what the last gang could tell him, before he would start forcing entry into government buildings, though he doubted he would be able to actually avoid those break-ins. After all, even if one of his new targets was a member of this last gang, it was highly unlikely that they'd have all the information he'd need.

But he was straying in his thoughts again.

He had his plan made and executing it was a matter for tonight. For now, he should focus on putting together the best dinner he could for the party that he was holding this evening. It would have to be as close to perfect as he could bring it; Taiga, Sakura and Issei deserved nothing less.

Buying a few more ingredients at his last stop, he eventually made for his home again. Today's trip had taken a few hours, so by the time he would arrive at the estate, it would be late enough to get started right away with preparing dinner.

It would probably be wiser to wait for a bit when at home though, as Sakura had told him this morning she would be arriving a bit later today. And while such a thing would normally not have been such a problem, it just so happened that Sakura had nearly demanded of him that morning that he would allow her to help him with the entire meal.

Not seeing another choice, he had quickly acquiesced to Sakura's demands. If the girl got in such a mood, it was very hard, if not downright impossible, to get her to change her mind, so Shirou had not even tried. Although that did leave him with an additional hour to spend between him arriving at home and Sakura reaching his house. But what should he do in that time then?

Shirou tried to think of something productive to do in a mere hour, but he came up short for now. Anything he would normally do was impractical if he had to cram it in such a short time, and to waste an entire hour with frivolities was also not what he wanted.

Little did he know though that a way for him to spend that hour was currently coming towards him, at high speed.

Shirou suddenly got the feeling something was about to happen. Nothing else, no details, just a general feeling. Further inspection revealed the source of the feeling to be the hammer still present in his head. Upon Shirou questioning it, the hammer replied it was completely sure of itself, insisting that an event was about to occur. The only reason Shirou did not enter 'combat mode' at once was because he did not feel any danger anywhere, nor did Mjolnir warn him of something like that. The feeling was really just an indication that _something_ was going to take place.

The divine weapon remained infuriatingly quiet though on just what it was trying to tell Shirou of. It just kept sending out notifications that the event was approaching, not even hinting at what, or who, or when, or even how Shirou was supposed to react to this happening. All it was doing was feeling… smug?

Puzzled by this uncharacteristic behaviour Mjolnir was displaying, Shirou kept his guard up, staying vigilant despite the lack of visible or otherwise noticeable danger. He did not break his stride though, electing to keep walking as if he had noticed nothing. If something was indeed hunting him and still thought him to be unaware, then maybe he would be able to lure it into an ambush.

But as the seconds ticked by and he still could not detect any dangerous being approaching from anywhere, Shirou slowed his pace, taking the extra time that gave him to look around more carefully, making sure to sniff out his surroundings as well. He meticulously kept his Circuits and the mysterious power dormant, so no Prana or other kind of power would leak out and alert any onlookers to his true nature, while of course also making sure both were on stand-by to be activated in a fraction of a second in case something did in fact attack.

But still there was nothing in sight. And still Mjolnir insisted with infuriating certainty that something was coming at him.

Shirou huffed once, trying to think of any possible explanations. Was he supposed to go somewhere in order for this 'event' to take place? Would it ambush him only when he was in the correct spot?

Deciding to see whether the theories held any truth to them, Shirou increased his pace again. Better to get this over with quickly then. He'd trust Mjolnir not to lead him to too much trouble.

Speeding up as he quickly crossed the distance, he reached the end of the street he had been walking on in barely any time. And then, with the same, not quite top athlete-worthy, but still not inconsiderable speed, he rounded the corner…

…Only to collide head-on with someone else running in the exact opposite direction.

' _Well, now I suppose it makes sense.'_ Shirou thought wryly, noticing Mjolnir had stopped sending out its warning and was instead radiating amused and, strangely enough, satisfied feelings. _'Your sense of humour is truly splendid, my friend.'_ He red-haired magus conveyed sarcastically to the hammer through his thoughts.

After having made his opinion of Mjolnir's antics clear, though he was not truly annoyed by the hammer, Shirou redirected his attention towards the person who had collided with him.

Shirou had been running quite fast when he had sprinted around the corner, and from what he had perceived from the other person, so had they. As such, it had been inevitable that they would collide pretty harshly with a lot of force behind the blow. Normally, they both would have bounced of each other and fallen back, or one of them would have delivered more force and would have fallen forwards onto the other, like in some kind of anime.

Yes, that was what would have happened if this had been a normal collision of two normal people. However, as we all know by now, Shirou was not normal at all. He was a Magus who was in the process of becoming a god. His strength, durability and fortitude allowed him to take the blow of the impact with ease. Shirou did not even stagger, nor did he have the wind knocked out of him, as perhaps should have happened if this had been the aforementioned normal situation.

He did come to an immediate stop, but that was because he had halted himself, not because of his momentum being bled off by the collusion.

As such, Shirou dealt with the blow just fine, but the same couldn't be said for the poor other person.

They had been knocked back after the collusion, as they had come into contact with a for-them-immovable object. The harsh gasp Shirou had heard upon their contact with the unforgiving ground indicated that they, unlike him, had actually gotten the wind knocked out of them by the collusion. Shirou could only hope they were okay.

Upon looking down towards the other person, his thoughts barely taking half a second, he saw a girl of about his age, with brown hair, brown-yellow eyes and the typical Japanese build, laying on the ground in front of him. She had fallen down backwards rather hard, as she was still panting to get some air back into her lungs, remaining sprawled out on the ground, flat on her back. Quickly, Shirou stepped up to her and offered her a hand to help her up.

"I am so sorry." He said ruefully, hoping she didn't have a concussion or any other possible dire wound. "I should have paid better attention to my surroundings. Are you well?"

The girl on the ground looked up at him, blinked a couple of times with an expression of confusion on her face, and then huffed.

* * *

Mitsuzuri Ayako was walking peacefully down the street, her steps calm and confident as always, with her head firmly stuck in the clouds.

She was just on her way home from her martial arts training and saw no reason to hurry. Her parents and her younger brother Minori were out of town, since two days ago in fact, and they wouldn't be back until the next day. They had offered to take her along before they left, but she had politely refused. The outing was for Minori, and for Minori only, which gave Ayako little incentive to go along.

She'd been home alone for the past couple of days now, and had managed just fine if you asked her. Though it might seem strange for a girl her age to get by without parental guidance, being all on her own was no problem for Ayako, as she was mature enough to take care of herself for a mere three days. She could do her own laundry, get herself to and from martial arts training and there wasn't even school to worry about, because of the holidays. Food was no problem either. She would just warm up whatever dish her mother had prepared for her before she'd left. Not the best tasting dinner ever, but it would do.

Knowing her dislike for pre-prepared, warmed-up meals however, her mother had suggested she'd try to eat with friends during the evenings she was alone. It could be a good old-fashioned sleep-over even.

That was going to be difficult however, as Ayako didn't have any friends that she was close enough to that they would allow her to stay at their place for either dinner or a sleep-over. And she sure as hell wasn't going to ask casual acquaintances for such a thing. She did have one friend she might be close enough to for a sleep-over actually, but that friend's family sucked, so warm-up meals and lonely evenings it was for her.

Her distinct lack of friends wasn't because Ayako was such a difficult girl to get along with, on the contrary, her out-going personality and exuberant behaviour made it very easy to be in her presence for anyone who was compatible with such a person and/or was mature enough to bear her teasing and excitement.

A shame it was then that no one from her age-group was either compatible enough with her or sufficiently mature to put up with the more difficult parts of her personality, never mind both. It had been a point of quiet irritation for Ayako that everyone in her age-group seemed to insist on being as immature as possible, while still pretending it was her who was the childish one, only because she was exuberant.

The only one she really got along with, the friend with the... less-than-ideal family, was a girl who was one year below her at school; one Matou Sakura. They waved to each other if they crossed in the hallways while going to class, and they would meet in the breaks to exchange stories and friendly words. They had met about two months ago, by attempting to take the same chair to sit on during the break, as corny as it sounded, and since then, a tentative friendship between them had been built. Or at least, Ayako would like to think of the sweet girl as a friend, and hoped she felt the same.

Though how such a sweet girl could have such a jerkish brother would forever remain a mystery to her. Matou Shinji really was an unpleasant person, even if most of the school couldn't see that for some reason. Fortunately, he had always kept his distance from her, even though they were in the same class. He seemed to have picked up on her dislike for him, and had acted accordingly. Thank Kami for small blessings.

Ayako truly couldn't see how Shinji and Sakura could be related, so distinct were the differences between them. Was Sakura adopted or something? If it wasn't for the identical purple hair the siblings possessed, she would have been almost certain of it.

"HONK!"

"EEP!"

Violently roused from her thoughts by a car only narrowly missing her, Ayako almost fell backwards, but managed to steady herself, if only just.

Feeling angry at the driver for cutting things so close, yet also seeing that it was also partially her own fault, Ayako hissed after the car, before walking on quickly.

The almost-collusion did rise her from her ever-deepening thoughts however, making her realise that it was not her place to think or ask about the private life of the Matou's yet, so she wouldn't. Maybe when she had gotten closer to Sakura, but not before.

Searching her mind for something to distract her from the previous train of thought, she went over the happenings of the past weeks. Hopefully that would be enough to take her mind of matters that were not her business.

Martial arts training was going rather well, in her humble opinion. A little bit of karate and the like, all amusing and simple enough for her, though Ayako couldn't wait until she got to train with the naginata. That had been a goal of hers for years now, and she felt she was almost ready for it.

The naginata wasn't the only weapon she wanted to train with of course, she had far more interests than only that. She also had aspirations to join an archery club, once she was enrolled in the high school of her preference. From what she had heard of the club connected to said school, it was an excellent club with motivated and skilled members, who regularly participated in competitions between schools, an absolute plus for the spirited and competitive girl.

So her life was looking pretty much okay now, but that didn't change the fact she still had nothing good to eat tonight. It might seem like only a minor concern, as she at least had food, but it was still annoying, damnit.

She had by now accepted it though, and she would eat her dinner like a good girl, as her mother would say in the overly soothing tone of voice. Maybe she could reward herself after dinner with a walk through the nearby forest to clear her mind? Yes, that would be nice indeed.

She would have to eat quickly though if she wanted to do so before dark. Her mother had always told her it wasn't safe to be out after nightfall and Ayako herself had agreed every time. Even if there had been news recently that the police were cracking down hard on the gangs of the city, it changed nothing about the fact that being outside alone during dark wasn't safe for young girls, even in a supposedly calm city like Fuyuki.

Yes, if she wanted a walk to and through the forest, then she would have to prepare and eat her dinner fast tonight. It was winter after all, and the sun would set at an early hour because of that.

With that in mind, Ayako increased her pace even more, until she was all but sprinting towards her home, the bag on her back bouncing with every step. Ayako, being a fit and healthy person, could keep that up for quite some time, and would only need a few moments of rest along the way.

While running, her mind wanted to occupy itself again, to stave of the boredom if nothing else, and strayed again to her annoying lack of friends.

Sure, she was planning on fixing that once she got into high school, as the school of her choice was a very well regarded one that prized itself on its relatively mature outlook. It was safe to say there would be at least a few mature people of her age there next year that she could befriend. Or at least, she hoped so.

But even if that wasn't the case, Sakura, the absolute sweety that she was, had indicated that she was also aiming for that school, and had assured Ayako that they wouldn't stop being friends just because they would go to different schools.

Sunken in thought as she was, Ayako didn't slow down when going around a certain very sharp corner, nor did she look around it to check if there was someone coming from the other side. It occurred to her half a second too late that not looking might not have been the wisest course of action.

And indeed, upon going around the bent, she collided face-first with a... wall?. Something that did not fall over or stagger, like a person would have done, but instead remained on its place even after she ran into it at full speed.

As one might expect, she almost comically bounced off said wall, and landed flat on her back. Luckily her bag was both small and soft, or it might have been murder on her back, which would have seriously hurt and maybe even done worse than that. She managed to keep her head from slamming on the ground however, thank Kami.

The air was completely knocked out of her though, and she had to pant for breath for a few moments before she could think properly again. Her sight was blurry, and her head spun slightly, but she could see some kind of shadowed object standing before her, which was probably the wall she had run into. Reaching up with a hand, she cradled her head in it.

But it was then that Ayako noticed the glaring lack of the head-ache she had been expecting. She had come into contact with a wall, head-first! She should have had a throbbing head-ache at the very least. It wasn't the first time she had run into something, she had to admit, and there had always been a headache afterwards. What else could one expect after ramming into an object harder than oneself?

She had to admit though that it had been a strangely soft wall this time. Not soft as in feathers or a heap of blankets, but definitely softer than the other objects she had run into before, as the distinct lack of pain indicated. Strange…

It was even more of a surprise when the wall suddenly started moving from its place, coming closer to her and leaning over the downed girl. Surprise turned to outright shock when the wall(?) started to talk to her.

"I am so sorry, I should have paid better attention to my surroundings." It said, regret and concern clear in its voice. "Are you well?"

She fully lifted her head to properly look at the object, blinking a few times to get rid of the blurriness. When her sight had sharpened again, she finally realised the wall/object she had run into was in fact not an inanimate thing. It was a person, though admittedly a very sturdy one.

Ayako huffed after realising that what should have been obvious. What had she been expecting? That a wall had suddenly been raised in the middle of the road? And that said wall would try and help her up after she'd fallen down? The disorientation had clearly affected her a lot if that was her train of thought now.

Realising the person above her was still waiting for an answer, she quickly regained her bearings and took the hand offered with a wide grin. "I'm fine, you don't have to apologize. I wasn't paying attention either, so I guess we were both at fault here, really." She said, getting her feet under her again and smoothing out her skirt.

The boy across from her smiled at her response, though the concerned look didn't disappear entirely. He had a nice smile, Ayako noted absently. The boy's face seemed made to smile in fact, somehow. The spirited girl quickly looked him over completely. He was quite tall for his age, which she guessed was close to hers, with red hair, golden eyes, and quite a handsome face. He was wearing loose-fitting clothes though, so she couldn't say or see anything more about him than that.

Realising he was speaking again, she quickly focused on his words instead of his looks. "I am glad to hear that." The boy said. "When you fell down like that, I was worried you might have gotten hurt."

"Now that you say it, it did bounce off quite spectacularly, didn't I?" Ayako responded with a small grin. "You must be really tough to take such a blow without any problem and send me flying like that." Really, as far as she'd seen, he hadn't even been staggered by the collision, which was probably the reason she had believed initially that he was a wall. Tough indeed.

The boy rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish motion.

"Ah, not really. I just train a lot, that's it." He answered, looking down in slight embarrassment.

Yeah, that wasn't everything. She was sure of it. _She_ trained a lot, and it had still been _her_ who had been knocked over in the collusion, not him. That certainly couldn't be explained by training alone, or was she a lot weaker than she had always thought she was?

"Emiya Shirou by the way." The boy, Shirou, then continued, as he held out a hand for her to shake. "A pleasure to run into you."

After looking at the offered hand for a moment, Ayako grasped it as firmly as she could, shaking it exuberantly. "Mitsuzuri Ayako, pleased to meet you." She said quickly, before expressing her disbelief with his previous statement.

"You train a lot?" She huffed disbelievingly. "I train a lot too, but I was still sent flying by you. You must be some kind of super-bodybuilder."

The boy, ' _Shirou'_ , she reminded herself, laughed at that, shaking his head. "I might be a bit stronger than most people of our age, but I'm not a bodybuilder, Mitsuzuri-san, and definitely not a 'super-bodybuilder' as you put it." He remarked, looking amused at her statement. "One could argue I don't have the looks for it."

Ayako giggled at his response, her guess had been a bit silly, hadn't it? He didn't look all muscle-bound, so unless he had some kind of cheat code that violated the natural laws...

Dismissing that notion, however cool it would be, Ayako took another look at her conversation partner, as she suddenly recalled something, something to do with an 'Emiya Shirou'.

She had heard that name before, quite often actually, but where had that been again? Searching through her memory, but finding nothing at first, she was almost ready to let it lay for now, before it occurred to her at last.

"Wait!" She exclaimed, startling him slightly with the sudden volume of her voice. "Are you by any chance familiar with one Matou Sakura?"

The plum-haired girl always spoke of her Senpai with an incredible fondness and appreciation, so if this was that Emiya Shirou, well, then he had already made a good impression on Ayako, that was certain.

"Matou Sakura?" He repeated, before he smiled brightly. "Yes, I know her. She is a good friend of mine. She always stops by every morning and evening for breakfast and dinner. You could say she's the first friend I ever had. Why do you ask?"

Ayako only just caught what he had said, as she had been occupied with staring at his smile. She supposed she understood now why Sakura would blush every time she spoke of his smile, as it was indeed radiant.

"Ah yes, uhm" She spluttered. "She's a schoolmate of mine, and a friend as well I suppose. I usually speak with her during the breaks almost every day. Most of the time, it's just the two of us, as there aren't many people who want to associate with us." As she had said before, they were just too different from the rest.

"Oh! I see. So you're the Ayako that is bold and brash on the outside, but also soft and mellow on the inside." Emiya said, smiling at her again. "Thank you for being there for her during school then. It is good to know she has you as a friend as well."

The exuberant girl blinked a few times in surprise at his words, before realizing it was only normal that if the plum-haired girl had told Ayako of Emiya, Sakura would have told Emiya of Ayako as well. Still… _'Did you really have to tell him such things about me, Sakura?'_ She thought frantically, half-turning to hide her small blush from the boy beside her. The purple-eyed girl was going to pay for that, she swore it, here and now.

When she had regained control of her blood flow, she dared looking back at him, only to find him already observing her with a bit of curiosity. "Again, thank you. Now if I may be so bold to ask, why were you in such a hurry just now that you had to run down the street so fast?" He inquired.

She would answer him of course, but first a bit of teasing: "Oh dear, asking personal questions of me. Are you trying to find out more about me in order to manipulate me or are you asking me for gossip, Emiya-kun?" She fake-giggled. "Not at all what I would have expected of you."

It was Emiya's turn to huff at that. "Hardly for gossip, even less for manipulating." He remarked dryly. "I was only worried you had something incredibly important to get to fast and that I was perhaps holding you here while you can't afford to lose the valuable time."

… That did remind her of her intention to take a walk in the forest before dark after quickly eating dinner. Looking at the time, she decided it wasn't entirely too late for that, but she would have to hurry even more now, and her walk would have to be annoyingly short. She might not even reach the forest at all. What a bummer.

Realizing the boy across from her was still waiting for an answer, she explained her reason for hasting so much. She could tell him that, as it was hardly personal, and besides, Sakura-chan liked him. That was enough of an indication for his trustworthiness. "I was rushing home because I had hoped that if I ate dinner fast enough, I would have daylight left to take a walk in the forest. I like doing that, you see. But I guess that's off the table now."

Emiya flinched slightly at that, before bowing to her in a clear apology. "I am terribly sorry for wasting your time like this then. Is there nothing that can be done to fix these problems?"

Ayako grinned. There really wasn't anything that could be done, unless he could turn back time, but it was nice of him to offer. And it was only a walk in the forest, nothing big or important. There would be plenty of chances to stroll through the woods for her, so it wasn't like this was an enormous loss.

"No, not really." She said, before explaining a bit: "You see, my parents are out of town with my little brother for a big martial arts tournament, but I had an important training myself today and could not join them as a result. Now I am home alone."

It might have been unwise to tell that to a stranger she had practically just met, but again, he knew Sakura and he felt trustworthy.

"Tomorrow they will be back, but that means that tonight I will have to eat one of mom's pre-made dishes that I'll have to warm up. Don't get me wrong, mom's a pretty good cook, but reheated meals are just not something I enjoy." She continued, feeling rather relieved to be able to air the issues to someone.

"I was planning on eating such a dish though, and then rewarding myself with a stroll through the forests next to the city. I do not dare to be outside after dark however, so I would have had to hurry to be on time to be able to wander for a bit after eating. I suppose that's not going to be possible anymore though."

Seeing she was done with her explanation, the golden-eyed teen across from her spoke up. "Again, I am terribly sorry for this. I really should have watched where I was going. Do you not have any other faster ways of obtaining food?"

"No, I don't. I don't want to go to any restaurants or café's, because of the whole out-after-dark thing. I also don't have friends I can go to, so a ride home or a sleep-over will not work either. Sorry." She finished, now again feeling slightly down as she recalled the state of her social life.

Contrary to her expectations, Emiya did not look crestfallen at that. Rather, he seemed pensive, as if contemplating something.

Eventually, he came to a decision. Looking at her once more, he went on: "This might come over as really bold, Mitsuzuri-san." He began. "But would you accept an invitation to spend the evening at my place for dinner?"

"You see." He continued as she was about to answer. "I am throwing a small party tonight to mark the end of the holiday, and I still have plenty of room left for more people. I had been hoping that could invite at least one more person, so would you do me the honour of accepting my invitation? And in case you are wondering, Sakura will be there as well."

Ayako stared for a moment. His invitation had sounded sincere enough, and his offer was very tempting, but the way he had framed it was definitely weird. He was inviting her to his party, so she could have a proper dinner, and he made it sound like _she_ would be doing _him_ a favour with accepting his offer. Again, weird.

She wasn't one to pass up on free food though, nor the promise of potential new friends. Emiya seemed fine friend material, so his friends would have to be too, right? And Sakura would be there, so that was at least one acquaintance she could talk with.

With that in mind, she graciously accepted his offer.

Emiya smiled at her again, and began leading her to his house, filling the silence with idle conversation with her. It was pretty nice, Ayako decided, to do this kind of thing. Just walking and speaking with someone who could understand her.

It was a pleasant surprise to hear of his intention to go to Homurahara high school next year. "Really?" She exclaimed upon hearing that. "I was planning on going there too. Fantastic then, that I'll have at least one person I know there."

"Indeed." Emiya agreed with her. "I am also happy you'll be there then, Mitsuzuri-san. But I won't be the only one. My friend, Ryuudou Issei, will also enroll into that school next year, so you can get to know two people. Not to mention that Sakura will join us as well the year after ours."

"Then I look forward to meeting this Issei tonight." Ayako told him honestly. Still, she decided it was prudent to ask him for a bit of a backstory behind the people he had invited for this party of his.

She was pretty sure they would be good people if Emiya had befriended them himself, not to mention that Sakura was apparently also part of this small group, but it couldn't hurt to check for herself whether she would be compatible with the other two.

"Of course, that shouldn't be a problem." Emiya said in response to her inquiry, nodding his head thoughtfully. "You already know Sakura, so I presume there is not much need for me to tell you about her?"

Seeing her shake her head, the boy continued. "Ryuudou Issei is the son of the owner of the temple bearing the same name as his family. You probably know this temple, as it is located at the border between the city and the forest. He is a very hard-working person, who is aspiring to become a monk himself, like his father is now. He is also very thoughtful, and if you get to know him, he is very kind as well."

Ayako nodded, that sounded pretty good. More mature people were always a win. "Are they the only ones invited though?" She asked, wondering if the total amount indeed came down to three, four with her included.

Casting a sideway glance at her, Emiya corrected her assumption; "No, there will be one more person. My big sister, Fujimura Taiga. She is my legal guardian and always comes by in the mornings and evenings, just like Sakura. Going back to our previous subject, she is also a teacher at Homurahara."

"Really?" Ayako asked again. "Huh, cool. Then I suppose this party can almost be seen as a 'preparation for Homurahara high' party, right? I mean, with all the people there that have their mind set on that school. Even Sakura wants to go there in two years."

Emiya gave her a surprised look, before he smiled yet again. "I had not seen it that way, Mitsuzuri-san, but I cannot dispute your claim. Feel free to call this party such if want."

She grinned, punching his shoulder in exuberance, before shaking that hand to relieve the pain that action brought her. Ouch, he was tough.

"Thanks, Emiya-kun." She exclaimed. "Much better than celebrating the end of the holiday. I mean, why would you celebrate that? It's more like a time of mourning really."

Looking at her incredulously, Emiya replied with an assurance that school was very important, and that breaks shouldn't last too long, lest they forget all valuable knowledge.

He did have a point with that, knowing things was good. Not that Ayako agreed with the statement that shorter breaks were better of course, and she let him know that at once.

The two teens continued their way to the Emiya-Estate, bickering with each other all the way about the importance of school and the minimum time of breaks a student needed. It was just about the first time the brown-haired girl had ever done anything like this with someone who wasn't family.

And she couldn't have been happier.

* * *

Shirou looked at the party he had thrown. Well, maybe party was a bit of a strong word to use, as nothing really wild was going on. He'd just call it a calm celebration then. Mostly spend doing board games, watching sad films on tv that got Taiga crying every time and discussing interesting events that had taken place recently, both in the city and in the lives of those present.

When he had gotten home with Mitsuzuri in tow, he had immediately offered her a seat at the dinner table. After making sure she was seated and comfortable, he had started preparing all the requirements for dinner, as well as putting away all groceries he wouldn't need that evening.

Sakura had arrived only ten minutes or so later, once again proving herself reliable to the core. She had been quite surprised to find Mitsuzuri sitting at the table, but after a quick explanation by himself and the girl at the table, there was nothing but happy acceptance from the plum-haired girl.

Speaking of Sakura, she had been sticking very close to him for the whole evening strangely enough, all the while keeping an eye on Mitsuzuri. He didn't think his newest friend had noticed, and he himself wouldn't have noticed either if he hadn't been trained to be hyper perceptive, but it was clear as day once you saw it. Ah well, she probably just wanted to help him the best she could and wanted to make sure her friend from school was comfortable.

Really, the plum-haired girl was amazing like that. When he had expressed that opinion to her though, she had suddenly left, claiming she had to go and see to it that everything was going well with the other people present. Again, what a kind girl she was.

Taiga and Issei had arrived almost at the same time, with Issei dressed up in neat clothes, as Shirou had come to expect of him, while Taiga just wore her every day-clothes, which was precisely what he expected of her. Issei, bless him, did not comment at all on that, instead just thanking Shirou for the invitation and then proceeding to be the perfect guest the rest of the evening.

Dinner had gone exceedingly well. Sakura and he had outdone themselves like never before. Even Shirou himself almost had trouble stopping with eating, it was just that good. And if he had that problem, it was safe to say Taiga could not stop eating for even a second, instead shovelling all the food she could get her hands on into her mouth.

Shirou was completely sure Issei would have commented on that, if the young monk, as well as Mitsuzuri, hadn't been busy doing exactly the same, only then somewhat slower and with more table manners.

All this enthusiasm did stroke Shirou's and Sakura's egos. The two teens, unlike their guests, were eating calmly, amusing themselves with looking at the others having an unspoken contest about who could eat the most.

Eventually, the meal came to an end. They all pitched in to help clean the table and the kitchen and went on with the party afterwards, which brought him back to the present. Coming out of his thoughts, Shirou looked around, at his house being all lively and cosy. It brought some warmth to his heart, as it gladdened him to see people just being happy. It also didn't hurt Mitsuzuri was now definitely a member of their small clique. New friends were always a good thing.

After discarding the train of deep thoughts at a call from Sakura to join them, he went over to the table to take part in the board game they were playing now. It was probably for the best that they enjoyed themselves, as tomorrow the hard life would begin again, as Mitsuzuri so eloquently put it. Of course, he would have to start being serious this very night already, had been serious since the start of the holidays, but he wasn't telling anyone about that.

Casting the gloom thoughts out for now, Shirou concentrated on the game before him.

It was certainly amusing to be a part of this cosy mess, but he had found it couldn't really fill the emptiness he still carried within him. The only thing that would help fill it, he knew, would be the work he was going to do once his guests were away.

All good things had to come to an end though, and this party was no exception. Promising to do this again some time in the future, Shirou, along with Taiga, walked everyone home one by one, before the unofficial siblings retuned home themselves, made easier by the fact they lived right next to each other.

Waving goodbye to Taiga as she disappeared from his sight, the golden-eyed magus walked back into his house. Contrary to the English teacher's expectations though, he did not go to bed immediately. Instead, he walked to the shed and grabbed the bundle of cloth that was his vigilante-outfit.

It was time to go to work.

* * *

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop, with Mjolnir firmly in hand, Shirou moved towards the hide-out of the gang he had decided to target tonight, once more recalling what his true purpose currently was. The group of criminals he was attacking tonight was the last true organized gang operating in Fuyuki-City as far as he knew, so it was also his last chance to interrogate one of the thugs smelling like magic. Unless he wanted to break into the police station of into prison of course.

As to why he was roof hopping instead of just flying; well, it was because of caution. He had flown most of the way to his destination, but when the base of the gang had come in sight, he had seen that approaching through the air would be a bit more difficult than normal.

This particular base was surrounded by flat and empty ground with no cover whatsoever, intended to be a parking space most likely. It also appeared the crooks had illuminated everything in a fifty-yard radius around their building. Though ambushing them from the air was probably still very much doable for him, as it wasn't in a human's nature to look up, he had eventually decided to carefully check things out first, in case they had a surprise in store for him.

He had turned around in midair and had then come down a fair distance away, afterwards making his way over on foot, over the rooftops, hopping like a large divine rabbit or something.

It was somewhat slower than flying, but he wasn't in a hurry or something, so he could afford to lose the time. It took only a few minutes anyway to reach his destination, so it mattered little. Once he had the building, which he would guess to be a former office complex, properly in his sights, he took a closer look to determine the proper course of action.

Inside the building, all the lights had been turned on and every entrance had a guard in front of it. Add to that the previously mentioned illumination of the fifty-yard radius, and it was a miracle the police weren't already knocking on their doors in preparation of a mass-arrest.

Well, a miracle… Most likely it was just corruption or incompetence on the part of the law-enforcement.

It would seem these thugs had not taken half measures to protect themselves from him, probably because they had heard of his relentless hit-streak of the past weeks.

 _'It's almost flattering they put in so much effort.'_ Shirou thought to himself, though he would have preferred it the easy way of course. _'I suppose I'll have to do my very best as well. It wouldn't be very honourable if I didn't.'_

Getting in without being seen would have been almost impossible if he had been a normal vigilante, which was no doubt what the criminals were expecting. Unfortunately for them, he had his Magecraft on his side, as well as a divine tool to help him if that would miraculously turn out not to be enough. Entering the building even with the lights on would have been child's play for him, only a matter of flying a little artfully.

But he had said he would put his maximum effort into this, so this time there would be no sneaking around. Rather, he would use his mighty hammer for this one.

It was obvious that the lights and lamps the crooks had turned on were the biggest problem he was facing currently, even if the 'biggest' problem was still minor to him. He would need some way to disable them, to short-circuit the whole building if at all possible. Luckily, he had control over something that had been responsible for many power failures over the years and, even better, would not raise suspicion about magic or the like even when used liberally: Lightning.

Without wasting any more time, Shirou raised Mjolnir into the sky, and called upon the mysterious power to create a lightning bolt. He would let one come down from the clouds that had been conveniently present all day, as it would be unwise to fire one himself from his position on a low building. If someone saw him, or even just saw the lightning bolt coming from the ground instead of the sky, then that could open a whole can of worms he didn't want to deal with right now.

He directed the clouds to gather above the office complex, making them shift from white-grey to deep dark, and then, without further delay, he brought down the thunder.

Accompanied by the harsh clap of thunder, a lightning bolt came down, completely ignoring any lightning rods that might have been present, following Shirou's command to directly strike the building instead.

It was another nifty little thing Shirou had discovered about his lightning bolts. Whereas normal lightning would always try to find the shortest way to the ground, meaning it would strike at the highest points available, like trees and skyscrapers, his lightning would only strike where he wanted it to strike. Whether the bolts came from Mjolnir or straight from the sky, they would follow his will without fail.

And this time once more. The lightning struck the building directly, making contact with the power-cables and as such deep-frying the whole circuit it was connected with and then some. Before Shirou's satisfied eyes, every lamp and light inside and around the building went dark, eliciting shocked and panicked cries from the gang members inside.

And as he had hoped, he could faintly pick up the smell of magic from inside. It was the same smell as most of the other criminals had had on them, so perhaps this would be his chance to get some answers about what on Earth was going on with all these magical crooks.

From what he could sense, the source was located at one of the top floors, so he'd have to fight his way through the entire gang to reach them.

After dismissing Mjolnir, as it was too strong a weapon for this kind of fight, Shirou took a leap from the building he had been standing on, covering dozens of yards in that one mighty jump, and came down right in front of one of the building's back doors. Two criminals were standing before him, frantically attempting to pull out their flashlights.

For now, it was completely dark though, putting Shirou, who had enhanced eyes that he had even reinforced shortly before, at a distinct advantage. Two taps sent the criminals to dreamland, and left Shirou free to enter the building to begin his hunt.

Taking down fumbling criminals left and right, Shirou followed his nose up the stairs, climbing higher and higher to the top floors. Eventually, some of the crooks managed to get some flashlights in their hands, enabling them to see somewhat better in the dark. It did not help them. Shirou was now inside, and the only thing the lights did was announcing their position to him.

It was all the way up on the fourteenth floor, with the majority of the gang members unconscious behind him, that he could finally pinpoint the source of the smell. It was only one floor up from where he was currently standing, that floor being the top-floor of the building. The only obstacle in his way now was the group of guards he had spotted protecting the stairs up to the top floor, which turned out to be the only way to get to the next level.

Shirou was quite confident he could just jump straight upwards with some power behind it in order to skip entirely past those guard. With his increased strength, busting through the ceiling to make it to the next floor would be easy. The criminals in front of him however had to be taken down as well, so bursting through the ceiling would have to wait for another time. Plus, they would certainly hear the noise that such an action would make, and thus come after him at once, forcing him to deal with them regardless of his wishes.

The crooks in the hallway possessed flash lights and small lamps, which they used to illuminate the space in front of them. To their back was only the stairs upwards and to the sides were walls. The only reason they couldn't see Shirou was because the red-haired hero had taken refuge behind a corner. They had picked a very strategic location to guard their charge, which was very smart of them.

Now that he thought about it, their plan of aiming lights outside to prevent him from sneaking up on the building had been quite crafty as well. Not to mention the fact that at least a part of the police had to be in these guys' pockets to not notice, or rather ignore, the lightshow. This was clearly not just a run-of-the-mill gang ran by lazy idiots, these guys could actually think. Or at least their leader could.

Not that it would help them against a Magus who could be considered to be among the most powerful of the modern age. With another high leap, the red-haired hero jumped over the light bundles aimed down the hall, smoothly and softly coming down behind the guards. It didn't take him even a second to take down most of them down after that with quick taps on the back of their heads. But when there was only one left, something unexpected happened.

The man had not looked behind him, nor had Shirou made any sound whatsoever, but still the crook suddenly started running as if the hounds of hell were chasing him. Blinking once in surprise, Shirou chalked it up to survival instinct. Then, in three flying steps, he had overtaken the man and knocked him unconscious as well. Not producing a single sound in the process. He would have almost pitied the gang members for facing someone so out of their league, if they hadn't been criminals of course.

Now he was free to confront the one who was clearly the leader of the gang. After all, if sitting alone on the top floor, guarded by a whole group of men with guns, wasn't enough to indicate one was the boss, Shirou didn't know what was.

The golden-eyed magus calmly walked up the stairs, seeing no reason to rush now that his target was trapped. As he had noticed before, there was only one way to get from the fourteenth floor to the fifteenth, that way being the stairs he was climbing at this very moment. So unless the man could fly like Shirou, which was unlikely to the extreme, he wasn't going anywhere soon.

It was also prudent to watch out for traps. Though he did not believe any of the criminals he had apprehended who smelled like magic had been users of Thaumaturgy themselves, there was always the possibility this one criminal here would turn out to be one. Magical traps were as such not completely ruled out, even if he couldn't sense any of the sort.

When he reached the top of the stairs though, he concluded his senses had been accurate and his suspicions less so. There was no single spark of Magecraft present in the building except for that smell clinging to the gang leader, and not a single trap, magical or mundane, connected to the stairs. Shirou had safely made it to the door of the room holding his target.

Trying to open it the easy way revealed the door was locked. That was no problem though, as Shirou simply kicked the door in, this time making sure to only break the lock, not the hinges.

The hero's gaze immediately fell on the man sitting at the back of the room, behind a desk, shrouded in shadows, though Shirou could see him just fine. A gun held in the man's hand was pointed straight at him. Though he knew mere bullets were nothing to him now, Shirou still crouched slightly, giving the man the impression that he was in fact nervous about the fire-arm.

The man looked… very generic to be honest. Black hair, typical face, no scars or anything, normal build for a Japanese man and so on. It was almost an insult to our favourite hero just how normal this gang-leader actually looked.

An insult, yes, but no surprise, not to Shirou. Kiritsugu had made sure his adopted son knew that normal, ordinary looking people could be monsters just as much as any beast from the Moonlit World. Not every villain had a moustache or a large scar. Most of them were just people you'd walk by on the street without ever suspecting anything. People such as this man.

"You!" The man spoke up forcibly, his teeth gritting as a feral light shone in his eyes. "Finally you show yourself to me, vigilante. I hope you had fun taking down the other gangs, because your life ends now."

The man seemed… angrier than Shirou would have expected. Sure, he had taken down the man's gang, and kicked in his door, and was threatening him now, but even all that didn't explain the sheer apoplectic rage the man now displayed towards him.

"You seem mad." Shirou remarked softly, deliberately adding a mocking undertone, hoping the man would blow up on him, as people tended to ramble when they had blown up. It would be an easy way of obtaining information if the man fell for it.

And indeed, the man seized the bait with both hands.

"Mad? MAD? I am furious! Do you know how hard I had to work to get all these gangs in this damn city to work together even slightly? All these prideful alpha-males, each with their own plans they think to be brilliant and an ego that's larger than Mount Fuji, and I had to work with only that. Do you have any idea how hard it is to soothe the ego of more than fifty different leaders, co-leaders and up-and-coming leaders all at once?"

The man was truly working himself up now, the hand holding the gun starting to tremble. "I am the one who organized them all, making sure the Fujimura-clan, damn their eyes, didn't shut everything down right from the start. I got them somewhat working together, or at least not shanking each other every other day. It cost me more than three years to come this far, and YOU TOOK IT ALL DOWN IN TWO WEEKS!" The man was now even spitting, screaming at the top of his lungs at Shirou, who remained wholly unimpressed.

The man's story did catch his interest though. "You are the man who was managing all of the gangs? By yourself?" He inquired, not bothering to hide his surprise. He hadn't seen anything that indicated a central leader during his previous outings. But now that he thought about it; when taking into account the incredibly small number of gang-related deaths and violent crimes, the fact that there was a leader should not have shocked him as much as it did.

"That must have been quite the job." The golden eyed Magus then continued. "I can't imagine it would have been very easy or particularly rewarding work to do."

Looking the man straight in the eyes, Shirou sent a small 'suggestion' into the man's mind, encouraging him to keep talking.

"And don't I know it." The leader sneered, needing no encouragement to vent his anger. "Between prideful leaders wanting my position and low-ranked idiots thinking they know better, every day here in this accursed city was torture. Torture which I only bore because I knew I'd be able to get out of here when I was sufficiently rich and powerful. I could have moved to another city altogether, leaving this one to the dogs."

A faraway look appeared in the crook's eyes, as if he were looking back to a past only he could see. "I once had it all. I had a strong gang, trustworthy underlings, cowed people in the streets, police-officers bought or intimidated, never daring to move against me; it was paradise, plain and simple. At least until it all came down around me, through treachery no doubt."

The leader focussed on Shirou again, an angry glint appearing in his gaze as he continued his story. "I fled to this city, desperate to get away from rivals and officers who suddenly gained enough courage to stand up to me, only to find broken, fragmented gangs and an underworld ruled by the Yakuza here. But I wouldn't let that stop me, I was going to rebuild everything I had lost and take my revenge on the one that betrayed me."

Shirou made a sceptical sound at that claim. "You speak of having been betrayed, but are you sure you didn't just fail at secrecy or intimidation?"

Once more, the sentence had been carefully constructed to get the man to spill his life-story in his rage. Up until now, it had all been very interesting to hear after all.

"No!" The man yelled, once more letting himself be manipulated. "I know it was that stranger who betrayed me. The one who came to me when I was only running a small gang in a backwater village. He gave me money, he made it so that I could rise to power, he gave me what I wanted in exchange for my services to him. And then he tore it all down! I know it was him, it could only have been him."

The leader had started spluttering and wailing during the last few sentences, indicating to the golden-eyed Magus that he was close to a break-down. That could not be allowed. There were too many questions left unanswered. Another mental push from Shirou returned some semblance of calm to the man, enabling the red-haired hero to ask his next question:

"What kind of services did you provide for him?" The inquiry was made in a hard voice, as Shirou could already feel that he would not like the man's reply.

"We kidnapped people and sold them to him." Was the answer he got.

Yep, as he had expected, he didn't like it in the slightest. Firmly sitting on the desire to take the criminal down at once and deliver him to the police with a headache that would hold on for days, Shirou asked the last question, picking his words carefully for maximum results.

"Are you even sure you can find him again?"

There. That was framed innocently enough.

If Shirou had directly asked the boss for a description of the 'stranger', he might have shut down about that, just to spite Shirou. Therefore, another, less direct question would have to be asked. That inquiry coupled with the man's apparent tendency to ramble would most likely provide sufficient incentive for him to keep talking.

"No, I am not sure at all. And that's why I decided to become a big-time gang leader again before I started hunting him." The man across from him bristled, waving the gun in a large circular motion to convey his agitation. "It's like he did something to my mind. I can only remember a blurry figure and a weird voice. And I wasn't even drunk during the meeting with that guy, damnit.

And the weirdest-, the weirdest part is that he always got everyone working for him. Just by looking people in the eyes and commanding them and off they went to obey him. Apparently, I did that too, but I can't recall ever doing anything of the sort."

The leader continued spluttering and mumbling, but Shirou didn't listen anymore. He had been shocked stiff the moment the man had finished his small explanation, as those symptoms, those circumstances, sounded eerily familiar. What the man described, the sensations he had felt and seen, sounded suspiciously like Hypnosis.

Hypnosis. The art of supressing and altering people's memory and mind. With this skill, a Magus or other user of Thaumaturgy could compel any weaker-minded or untrained person to do whatever the Magus wanted. Not to mention they could mess with the mind and the memories in terrifying ways, altering a person possibly beyond recognition.

That was extremely problematic. If there was a Magus, or multiple Magi according to the multitude of smells present on the criminals he had caught, using hypnosis to compel gang leaders to kidnap people for them, then the damages done could be catastrophic. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people could have been kidnapped over the years, used for whatever purposes the Magi could think of. The police had no chance of ever catching them, only their puppets could be caught, and those would be replaced in a matter of days at the most.

Worse, if the Magus Association ever got wind of this, they might decide to start a purge never before seen in recent times to erase all traces, should they deem it too great a risk. And that was only if they didn't decide that it was a valid method of obtaining resources, one that should be copied by all. Most Magi were sick like that, and the Nobles in the Clocktower in particular.

This truly was one of the worst explanations possible for the magical smell on the criminals.

"But I've already said too much." The leader suddenly spoke up again, aiming his gun once more at Shirou, even though the hand holding the gun was still shaking. "You have ruined all of my hard work of the past years. I'll have to start all over again because of you and your meddling and my revenge is even further away. Now you will pay for it, with your life. Farewell, mister Vigilante."

And he pulled the trigger of the gun in his hand. The leader made sure to aim straight for the man standing there, though he could not get his arm to stop shaking. It didn't matter though, as he was sure the bullets had gone in the right direction. He still shot thrice, just to be sure, aiming as well as he could at the right place.

Only, the Vigilante was no longer standing there, the bullets striking only the wall at the other end of the room instead. The gang boss blinked in surprise at the hero's sudden disappearance. That was impossible, the meddling idiot had been right there when he had fired the gun, no one could move fast enough to dodge bullets. Where was…

His thoughts of bafflement and disbelief were brutally interrupted when he felt something shaped like a fist impact with his wrist hard enough to shatter the bones, making him drop the gun as his hand refused to obey him any longer.

He opened his mouth to let out a cry of agony at the sudden pain, only to have said cry stopped in his throat when a hand wrapped around said throat. The criminal found himself lifted into the air, gasping for breath. He was then thrown backwards into the wall behind him, and his collar was seized right after that.

After Shirou had pulled the man to eye-height, he looked into the gangster boss' eyes, and used his own hypnosis on the man. He took over the man's mind, being much more forcible than before, when he had only been sending a mere suggestion.

 **"Tell me everything about yourself, your previous gang and the stranger you dealt with so often, now."** He commanded, his voice hard and thundering.

And the criminal boss, named Sawachika Keizo apparently, obeyed him at once, starting to drone out facts to Shirou, his eyes having glazed over. Most of those facts were useless, and others Shirou had already heard from Sawachika's mouth just minutes ago, but some facts were both new and quite interesting to hear, such as Hikone being the city the crook originated from. That already gave him a new lead to find possible clues that lead to his new enemies.

The lock on the man's memories was still present, preventing Sawachika from giving Shirou any details about the Magus, but Shirou was quite sure he could do something about that.

Applying some of the mysterious power that always obeyed his commands so well, Shirou began unravelling the knot in the memories, taking care not to damage anything, but not being very gentle either.

Before Mjolnir's arrival, Hypnotising someone would have been very hard for Shirou, never mind undoing another Magus' meddling in someone's mind. Now though, it was only a minutes' work for him to undo all the blocks and alterations that had been building up for years, which once more proved Shirou had gone from a hopeless Magecraft-user to an affront to Bell-Curves everywhere.

With his mind now unhindered, Sawachika could tell him a bit more than before, though not all that much. Fortunately, the Magus' appearance he could now remember well enough to describe. It appeared the person was male and had a seemingly Northern-European nationality, according to Sawachika at least.

The gang leader couldn't tell the red-haired teen much about the fate of the people he had sold. The hide-outs the kidnapped people had been brought to were always only temporary and their locations were ever-shifting through Hikone.

Seeing he had obtained every bit of useful information the man could give him, Shirou quickly reapplied the memory locks that he had removed earlier and, just to be sure, added his own to make the crook forget the conversation he and Shirou had just had with each other. The less the police had to work with, the better.

During the re-applying of the memory-locks, Sawachika calmly droned on about the things he had done in his life. But when the man, still under hypnosis to tell Shirou everything about his former gang, then started talking about the depraved things he and his gang had done during their rule, Shirou promptly knocked him unconscious, using a lot more force than necessary.

It was only now he called the police. He had neglected doing so before as he hadn't been sure how long the interrogation would take, and considering it had ended up taking quite some time, that had been a wise move on his part. Now that he was done here however, the officers and detectives could come in droves, he would be gone in a minute or less after all.

A glance to the side revealed the presence of a window in the room, which he quickly walked towards. Opening it, he took one last glance at Sawachika, who was still out cold against the back-wall of the room, before launching himself into the sky with a once more summoned Mjolnir.

* * *

Osaki Koyo was a troubled man.

That was nothing new to him, as his profession of detective was usually a stressful and upsetting job even on the best of days. It was difficult to have to see time and again what cruelties people could commit on daily basis and seemingly without a second thought. Ordinary people, looking like any other, acting like monsters. It had been his job to track people like that down for twenty years now, and he was still not used to the horrible things humans could inflict on each other.

No, it wasn't all that rare or strange for detective Osaki to be troubled or otherwise upset with the world in general, but this time it was even worse than usual. The cause for his trouble now was not just one cruel person or one depraved act, it was the whole situation he had found himself in.

He had only recently moved to Fuyuki-City and to be honest, he was already completely done with the entire place. It was safe to say that he did not like it here at all.

The only things preventing him from packing up and leaving again were the fact that it would give him many logistic and financial problems to move yet again without any guarantee his former house would be sold, and because his two daughters, whom he held dearer than anything else in life, had managed to settle down here much better than he had.

Add to that his annoyingly rigorous sense of duty and he knew he would never be leaving this town during his life-time. He knew he couldn't simply leave everything here alone by itself, as his co-workers at the police-force were so unmotivated it just hurt to look at. With precious few exceptions of course.

Most of them did their jobs, he had to hand that to them at least, but they were often slacking, pushing their own work on others as often as they could get away with it, and cutting corners where they could.

When Osaki and his family had moved to the city a little over two years ago, he had already known there was a distinct gang presence in Fuyuki-City. That was no secret to anyone working in law-enforcement in the Kyoto-region. But that was no different for the other cities, even the town he had previously lived in had gangs, that was almost unavoidable.

The thing this town had going for it however that made it more appealing for a single father with two daughters to live in was the fact that those gangs were under constant pressure from one of the local powerful families. Though the criminal records of the city were average, the amount of deaths, abductions and rapes were a lot lower than in most of the other cities in the region, with it still being an interesting and bustling city.

As such, he and his daughters had together elected to move here. No one in the family had had any problems with moving away from their previous home, as they didn't really have any friends or something like that there. Couple that with…

Osaki took a deep breath.

…With what had happened, and they were only glad to get out of there.

When they had arrived here and had successfully settled in, his daughters had really found their place. They were attending a good school, with a lot of friends, and kind, attentive teachers. Everything in their lives was going better than ever.

Osaki was of course very content with that. How could he not be elated that his daughters were so happy now, especially after… that. He had to admit though, that while he in no way begrudged them their happiness, he was also feeling slightly envious of them.

He would have liked to say he too had settled in well at the local law-enforcement, but unlike his daughters, he had encountered problems left and right from the very beginning.

At first, when he'd had no idea of how deep the rot was running, he had done his best to overcome the obstacles through hard work and dedication, as he hadn't wanted to give up after only a few snatches on the way. Now though, he was wondering if he shouldn't have bailed back then, when he still had the chance.

When he had arrived at his job for the first day of work in a new city, it had immediately occurred to him that all his colleagues were very lax. Initially, he had chalked it up to the low rates of dire crimes in the city, which warranted a slightly more relaxed approach than would have been permittable in other cities.

Later though, he had learned that they were just lazy.

Now, on itself that was not an insurmountable problem, as Osaki could still do his job regardless of the incompetence of his fellow detectives and officers. He had the superiors on his side, so he could just do what needed to be done without needing the assistance of lazy idiots.

What was in fact an obstacle though was the annoying tendency of the others to load parts of their work onto the desks of those who were actually working hard, so mainly him and a few others. It greatly clogged his workflow and disrupted his concentration, but short of threatening with dire consequences, there wasn't much that he could do about it.

Still, despite the lazy part of the police force, he had managed to do his work fairly well during the past two years, calmly tracking down drugs dealers, home invaders, muggers and so on, only very sporadically encountering a real dire crime, to his enormous relief and happiness.

He was so relieved with that, both because low crime rates were always a blessing, but also because this city couldn't handle murderers and rapists with its police-force being as it was now.

Osaki was a hard worker, and he had some assistance of like-minded individuals, but he and his small group wouldn't be able to deal with crime rates equal to other cities.

But fortunately, everything had remained quiet for a long time. He and his merry band of followers, as well as the occasional efforts of the other officers, had managed to keep everything in order for the most part, even if they had to rely a bit too much on the Yakuza for his tastes.

Everything had seemed to go relatively well for him, both at work now that he was fully integrated and especially at home. His little girls had been happier these years than they had ever been before. He was also really started to connect with them again as their father. It had been, well, not perfect, but certainly above average.

And then this mess had happened.

Osaki sighed loudly as he left his home. He had been called at half-past-four with the message that yet another gang had been found this morning, with all of their members unconscious. He was now needed to investigate their hide-out for any evidence to properly prosecute the criminals, and maybe find possible clues to track other criminals with.

Don't get him wrong. It was of course a good thing that yet another gang had been rolled up, which meant even fewer criminals on the streets than normal, which meant more safety for everyone. Even if the early hour was somewhat annoying, it was nothing he couldn't handle.

What was in fact a problem to him at the moment, and as such also the reason for his morose mood, was the person responsible: the mysterious and nameless vigilante.

From what he'd heard until now, it was most likely the same person, or persons, as the past twenty-or-more times a gang had been beaten down somewhere in the city.

It had all started two weeks ago, with the sudden arrest of an entire gang of drug dealers. Osaki himself hadn't been present for it, but he had heard about the case from one of his trustworthy colleagues. He had also heard that no one of their small group of competent people had been involved in the arrest, which left Osaki feeling astounded that the lazy part of the force had actually manged to perform so well for once.

Then more mass-arrests had followed in the subsequent nights, some of which he had been present for, and Osaki had learned that, no, the other officers weren't suddenly getting more competent than before, rather they were claiming the accomplishments of a third party as their own. It was somewhat sad actually that the truth surprised him less than his first assumption had.

After stepping into his car, he drove off to the apartment complex they'd found the gang in, where his partner would be waiting for him.

As it was still early in the morning, there was almost no traffic, allowing him to cover the distance at a respectable speed. Not that it was very strange that there was no traffic. What normal person would voluntarily drive around in the dark after all? Only people who had to work, people without any choice, and criminals were out at this time of the day. It was completely dark outside, with not a single ray of light except the streetlights placed at the sides of the road. It was a blessing that it wasn't also raining at the moment, as there had been a lot of sudden storms and rainfalls this holiday.

It was only twenty minutes later that Osaki pulled over along the road and disembarked from his car. Walking up to the office complex that was his destination, he ducked under the yellow tape and went to search for his partner, who had told him she'd be waiting somewhere on the parking space.

He didn't have to search for long. Yomaura Taya was currently standing outside of the building in full view of anyone passing by, no doubt waiting for his arrival so he could join her before they entered the building.

His partner in the police force was a tall, slim woman with red hair, something inherited from her Irish father she had always said, and brown eyes. She wore a neat blouse and a pencil skirt, with combat boots on her feet. She was relatively new at law-enforcement, having worked at a big pharmaceutical company before she had made a switch in careers.

She had been his partner from the moment he had arrived at the Fuyuki-police station for the very first time. Recalling the young newbie with a 'so new she squeaks' kind of shine about her nervously inquiring whether he was her new partner never failed to bring a smile to his face, even during the most stressful of moments. Now was no exception.

She had greatly improved over the last two years however. The professionalism she was now displaying in directing the other officers and lower ranked detectives was a clear testament to that. All because she had worked so hard, though she insisted it was mainly through his teachings that she had picked up the necessary skills.

But while he had been able to impart a great deal of wisdom on her, she had been a godsend to him as well. Osaki had been very new in Fuyuki-City after all, and as such did not know much about the dynamics of the city. Yomaura however had been born and raised here, making her an expert on all matters concerning the city itself.

That, coupled with her competence, reliability, and eagerness to please made her the perfect partner for a newly-arrived but still very much experienced detective like him.

"Good morning, Yomaura." He called out as soon as he was within earshot. "I see you have matters well in hand here."

She turned around on the spot at hearing his voice, standing at attention before him. The first few months, she had even saluted while doing so, but she had managed to shake that habit at his prompting. This was not the army after all. "Good morning to you as well, Senpai. Yes, everything is going well. The people present can handle it from here, we can go investigate the building itself."

Osaki voiced his agreement, sparing the time to compliment her on a job well done, as he knew she would appreciate that.

The two detectives then entered the apartment complex, already keeping sharp, experienced eyes out for clues of any kind. It was made slightly harder because of the lack of light, but they had flash lights, as well as some lamps that had been put down here and there.

Osaki grimaced when he first spotted the crime-scene after he had fully entered the building. Just like the previous times, the officers who had been first present on the scene had marked the spots where the criminals had been laying with small signs. The marking of the spots with signs was not what made him grimace of course, that was crafty and almost praiseworthy, rather it was the sheer number of the signs present on the first floor alone already that made him uncomfortable.

Whoever this vigilante was, they had to be one good fighter to be able to consecutively take down this many men, who had been armed with a plethora of weapons at that. Sharing his opinion with Yomaura, he found she had already come to the same conclusion as he had.

Said conclusion was nothing new though. They had already been able to deduce from the previous crime-scenes that whoever the culprit was, they had some, as his daughters would put it, 'mad skills' at fighting. According to the medics present at the crime scenes, most of the criminals had been taken down in one blow, without any chance to defend themselves. The vigilante, according to them, would have to be at absolute peak-human ability in both strength and speed to consistently manage to perform such a feat.

It made almost no sense to Osaki, as he was quite sure top athletes wouldn't spend their time beating up criminals. He'd had a lengthy discussion about it with Yomaura after the third night, and they had eventually come to the conclusion that it was either a super-well-trained agent from a powerful secret service, either from Japan or another country, that wasn't certain, or a really skilled athlete with a lot of backing to help him, or the vigilante was not just one person, but a large group of people working together to take down their opponents.

At this time though, there was no way to determine what was truth and what was not. All Osaki knew was that there was someone running around beating up gangs.

"Sheesh." Yomaura suddenly said from beside him as they climbed towards the fourth floor. "This guy really is some kind of fighting champion. Most of these guys never even had the chance to pull out a flash light before he was upon them, let alone put up any kind of defence. He must have completely waltzed over them in seconds."

"Yes, it does seem that way." Osaki replied, frowning as he noted his partner was right. "But what I'm wondering about is why they didn't just turn on the lights. In fact, I'm also wondering why we aren't turning on the lights. Did the vigilante fry the circuits again?"

"Yes, he did so again, somehow." His Kohai responded, looking very put out at that. "Just like the previous times, he shut down every part of the building's power network. According to the experts, he completely overloaded the system again, probably by short-circuiting the lot of it."

Osaki huffed, having to admit it was a good tactic of the vigilante. Shut down all the lights and power, and then come in with a night vision or something and take down the entire gang with superior skill while the opponents were in disarray.

It also matched completely with the story of the criminals they had interrogated. They had all told the same story: When the vigilante attacked, the power would go down shortly before the fighting would begin, while none of them had any idea how.

Neither did the police by the way. The only clue that had been found, by Yomaura naturally, was one power outlet that had been completely melted. After a quick check, it was found that one of those had been present in just about every hide-out. Mostly likely the vigilante had short-circuited everything from there, though it was unclear how.

Osaki and Yomaura kept climbing stairs after stairs, every floor holding less and less signs showing the place of the downed criminals, until they reached the final floor, where paper arrows under their feet pointed the way towards the final place they had to investigate.

Following the arrows, the duo arrived at an office of some kind. It was sparsely decorated, with only a desk and a few chairs. One more sign indicated that the last crook had been taken down here.

"This was the leader of the gang." Yomaura told him, confirming the suspicions he had. "He was attacked as well by the vigilante, though it appears the vigilante was a lot harsher with the boss than he was with any of the other criminals."

Osaki blinked at that, motioning for her to explain further while he searched the desk for anything interesting.

She complied: "He had not only been struck on the head much harder than the rest, giving him a heavy concussion, but he also had bruises on his throat that suggest temporary strangling by a person lifting him while using one hand, further bruising on his back, indicating he was thrown backwards into a wall, and a shattered wrist that will most likely never heal properly again."

Osaki turned to stare at his partner. "What?" He asked, now astonished. "But, why? Like you said, the vigilante has never gone that far before, what caused him to do so this time?"

"We don't know yet, Senpai, sorry." Yomaura replied demurely. "We are waiting for the man to regain consciousness, so we can interrogate him for what he did to make the vigilante that angry, but before that, it is only speculation."

"Well then." Osaki huffed. "Let's see if we can shed some light on the situation before he wakes up, shall we?"

Receiving a nod back from his kohai, Osaki went over the room, sharing findings and potential clues with Yomaura, just like she did with him. Not that it actually yielded anything. The only clue was the opened window, but that could mean all kinds of things.

Yomaura did elicit a laugh from him though when she jokingly suggested the vigilante had flown away.

It was a bit strange however that she, while adopting a joking tone, did not seem entirely convinced that such a thing was impossible.

Once done with the room, they doubled back through the building to make sure they really hadn't missed anything of importance.

As it turned out, they hadn't missed anything the first time. There simply was almost nothing to find to begin with.

"I believe that's just about everything we can do in here for now." The red-haired detective then said to her Senpai. "I will have someone inform the owner of the building of what went down in here. Do you want me to brief you on all the earlier findings?"

Osaki shook his head. "There's no need to waste your time with something like that, I will read everything I need to know from the report. I think going to the precinct is the best option we have right now."

His kohai murmured something about it not being a problem, before she complied with his orders. As she had arrived with the railway, she would drive along with him in his car.

They had not found any decisive evidence today, but all in all, it had gone rather well.

But despite that, Osaki couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. He couldn't place the feeling, but for the reader's benefit, it shall be written out here: It was the feeling of a predator turned prey. He didn't know it, couldn't have known, but the vigilante he was searching for would be coming to him soon, and not to turn himself in either.

* * *

That same morning Shirou found himself in school. What else could be expected? He had celebrated the end of the holiday yesterday after all.

He was currently seated at the back of the class, pretty much all alone, the tables at his right- and left side being empty as always. Not that such a thing would ever really bother him. He had Taiga, Sakura, Issei and since yesterday, Mitsuz-, Ayako he meant, as well.

So yeah, in class he usually sat alone, not talking to anyone and not being talked to. The breaks were spent in solitude as well, but that was mostly because Shirou would be busy repairing the equipment of the school or cleaning a mess that a student had made somewhere. It was almost every day that he had to do one or both of those jobs. In the meantime, his peers fooled around like children half their age, so that didn't allow for much socializing on his part or theirs.

The teachers might not ever consider him a friend of course, but they did tremendously appreciate his help, making him a one of the most favoured students of the school. His excellent grades, stellar presence-record and perfect behaviour also helped greatly with that.

The reason he had such excellent grades was of course partially thanks to Magecraft. And not only because his training in the craft made any schoolwork seem easy.

When Shirou had discovered that his aptitude for, or at least his dedication to, Reinforcement was greater than the norm, he had immediately tried to apply the spell to anything he could find.

Weapons, everyday objects, his muscles, his senses and so on. Every time with great success. And while his father had praised him for it, he had also cautioned Shirou that he should not go further than that when it came to his body.

He had almost immediately defied his old man's teachings then by Reinforcing his heart and lungs as well. Contrary to all expectations, he had not killed himself, not even close to it, and had even gotten those organs to work better and more efficient than before, even while not reinforced.

Kiritsugu had been baffled that suicidal move had actually produced any results, but had chalked his survival up to Avalon inside of him. He had foregone punishment for disobeying his orders, but had told Shirou that really was enough.

When he had been sitting in school one day however, the golden-eyed Magus had suddenly gotten the bright idea to Reinforce his brain as well. It had been a wildly dangerous plan, even more than Reinforcing his heart and lungs had been, as any mistake could have dire consequences, but Shirou never had much in the way of self-preservation to begin with.

It was been difficult and useless at first, only giving him nosebleeds and headaches. Enough practice and determination however had payed off considerably. Shirou had eventually managed to, somehow, permanently improve his brain.

It didn't exactly make him smarter, but it did increase both his memory and attention span, as well as his perception and reflexes. It had baffled the young hero when he had fully realized all of this, making him exited as well as curious how far he could take it.

It turned out that he couldn't take it much further. Despite more attempts, his brain did not improve again, leaving him with only headaches and nosebleeds, as well as Avalon working hard to fix the damage he had wrought to himself on all occasions.

He even discovered that he could not temporarily reinforce his brain at all. When he added magic to the imperfections in his brain, it was either improved permanently or not at all, which was very different from the rest of his body.

But then again, by reinforcing his brain he had been entering uncharted territory, as no one had ever done it even remotely successfully before. Shirou had eventually just accepted it.

Ever since his brain-reinforcement had succeeded, Shirou had never had any problems scoring perfectly at any test they gave him at school again. Not that he had ever scored lower than perfect, but now he also barely had to study anymore.

Because of that, as well as his helpful attitude, the teachers were somewhat more forgiving with him than they were with the other children. That wasn't to say he was ever misbehaving, only that they would ignore it if he spent his time in class apparently daydreaming instead of paying attention, which happened every once in a while.

Today again. Shirou was absolutely not paying attention to the lesson of the day, but the teacher only glanced at him once before continuing like he had seen nothing.

Little did the teacher know however, that Shirou had matters on his mind at that exact moment that were far more important than daydreaming about abstract things or following the lesson of the day. Matters that were far beyond a simple mundane teacher like him. No insult intended.

In fact, the knowledge Shirou held, the actions he would take from this point on, would irrevocably change the lives and destiny of many beings all around the world. It was very prudent of him to think it over first, even if he had to sacrifice some school-time for it.

Blissfully unaware for now of the impact of his future actions, Shirou was currently recalling one of the promises he had made to Mjolnir during the first night he had really used the hammer;

' _I have had much success fighting the mundane threats of the city,'_ He mused to himself. _'And I was planning to extend my reach to other cities, but I told the hammer I would save people in the Moonlit World as well. I promised that to it only last chapter…_

 _Huh? I mean only last week. But I did not expect to be confronted suddenly with such a large and long-going operation ran by magical beings.'_

He was currently torn in two between the two options he realistically had:

He could of course immediately forage into the depths in the case to solve it. Interrogate more criminals, find the source of the smell, which was now identified as a no-doubt-first-rate Magus, track down the Magus' hide-out, save as many people already kidnapped as possible and prevent further abductions from happening.

But on the other hand, he could stay out of it until he was stronger and more prepared, as he knew he was most likely not ready yet for such a massive undertaking as rolling up an organisation like that was no doubt going to be.

Of course, such a decision wasn't really a choice at all for him. He was Emiya Shirou. No matter how smart or cunning his father had tried to make him, he would always be who he was. The only reason he had even spend a minute contemplating what choice to make was because he wanted to honour his father's lessons.

The second option was never a real option, everyone even remotely familiar with Shirou already knew that.

His decision now made, Shirou went on to put together a somewhat functional plan to deal with this issue. Tracking down the source and leaders of such a wide-spread network was not easy, especially when you basically had no way of finding out any new information.

Well, no reliable way, but there were less trustworthy methods of finding the intel he needed. Every bit of information was at least something after all.

Looks like he would be visiting the police station after all. At night, preferably without anyone noticing.

* * *

Fujimura Taiga was in a contemplative mood.

It would have baffled anyone who knew her if they saw her like that, and indeed, the two teens across from her did exchange shocked and worried looks at her behaviour. It wasn't normal for her at all to be thinking so deeply about something, nor was it normal for her to be as silent and withdrawn as she was being at the moment. She wasn't even eating properly, instead just staring off into space.

It was the morning of the second day of school since the holidays had ended. Shirou had chosen not to break into the police station just yet during the previous night, so it had been very calm in Fuyuki-city that night.

The granddaughter of the Yakuza leader was currently sitting at the table, like she did every morning. Shirou had handed her breakfast with a smile, expecting her usual antics, but she hadn't said a word ever since she had absentmindedly greeted them when entering the estate.

It worried the two teens greatly to see their big sister be so down, especially since they didn't even know what was wrong. Taiga wasn't paying any attention, but if she had, she would have been able to see her ward and his not-quite-yet girlfriend quietly discuss something while occasionally glancing at her with concerned eyes.

Then, as if they had decided upon a plan of action, Shirou went to stand on her left side and Sakura on her right. Making eye-contact one more time, the two Magi then leaned forward until their mouths were close to Taiga's ears, and enacted their simple plan.

"Fuji-nee/Fujimura-sensei?" They yelled together, as loud as they could, almost giving poor Taiga a heart-attack. She started, shooting upright from her seating position. She didn't manage to stand up completely though, losing her balance and almost falling backwards, if Shirou hadn't reached out to grab her shoulder and stabilize her again.

Taiga frantically looked around to see what was wrong. "Shirou! Sakura-chan! What is wrong? Where was that for? Why did you do that?"

"We did that because we deemed it necessary, Fuji-nee." Shirou replied with a firm voice. "You weren't paying attention to anything we were saying, you weren't eating properly. You looked like something terrible had happened and you were now trying to figure out a way to fix it. You didn't speak with us at all. Fuji-nee, what wrong?"

Taiga looked at Shirou in surprise, also glancing at Sakura who emphatically nodded his head at the boy's words. "If something is bothering you, Fujimura-sensei, you can tell us. We will help you if you need it." She said, in full agreement with her Senpai.

Taiga blinked once in surprise, before quickly thinking back on her behaviour.

Oh yeah, she hadn't been behaving normally, had she? She had been too absorbed by the events of yesterday to participate in the morning rituals she always shared with her favourite teens. Well damn, she hadn't even been eating. No wonder they were concerned about her.

But there really was no reason for them to worry right now, she had just been contemplating an unexpected event that had greatly benefited her family and their business. Yes, she said benefited, because that's what happened.

Her dear wards were still waiting for an answer though: "Don't worry about it, you guys. Something good happened these past weeks and I was just thinking too much about it."

"Something good?" Sakura inquired, sitting down again to resume eating breakfast, an example that was followed by Shirou and Taiga herself. "Can you explain further or is it one of those secret things from your family?"

"Oh, I can explain alright." Taiga grinned, as there was nothing she'd rather do honestly. Telling her favourite people about the best event of the year? Hell yes!

"You see, I have told you about the many splintered and fractured gangs in the city, right?" Receiving twin nods, she went on: "Well, as you are no doubt aware, we of the Fujimura-clan do not like those gangs. They violate the rules, create chaos, commit dire crimes and more. We've been trying to kick them out them for years, though without much success."

"But you succeeded now then?" Shirou questioned.

Now her grin widened even more, almost splitting her face in half. Oh, they were going to love hearing this. There had been no information on the news, at all, probably because the cops wanted to claim the arrests as their own, but also because they didn't want to encourage possible copy-cats.

"All of the gangs on our watchlist have been arrested!" She exclaimed joyously, pumping her fist in her enthusiasm.

Sakura clapped her hands in joy, bouncing in her seat with a big smile on her face, forcing Taiga to blink a few times to recover from the cuteness-overdose that gave her.

"The police managed to take them all in?" The plum-haired girl questioned, eyes wide in disbelief and excitement.

' _Tsk, as if those idiots could ever do something like that.'_ Taiga thought derisively, grin dropping from her face. She was about to correct to girl on that notion, but Shirou started talking before she could.

"I don't think the police did that, Sakura." He said, sounding apologetic. "They haven't been able to do anything about the gangs for years, and the times I have come across the station, they seemed to be very… well… lazy, to be honest."

"Indeed." Taiga butted in. "While most officers and detectives might be adequate enough at their jobs to perform just well enough in normal every-day-situations, they would never be able to pull of an arrest like this. In fact, most of the time, my family has to do the heavy lifting when it comes to dire crimes."

"Ha?" The plum-haired girl mumbled, looking very stricken with that news, prompting Shirou to place a hand on her shoulder supportively. "B-but who is doing the arrests then?"

Taiga put her grin back on, this was going to be great. "I heard this only recently from a friend of mine who works in law-enforcement." She whispered, making the teens lean closer to her. "And she told me that every night the police would receive a call from an untraceable number, with the caller requesting them to come and pick up a large number of criminals.

And every time the police showed up at the correct place, the gang members were taken down and evidence was scattered around everywhere."

Now she stood up again, throwing her arms into the air in exuberance. "Fuyuki-City has its very own vigilante!" She exclaimed.

Sakura and Shirou were struck speechless for a moment, just as she had expected, before Sakura piped up, again clasping her hands together as a look of wonderment came to her face: "A vigilante? You mean one of those real-life superheroes?"

Not entirely, but close. Before Taiga could explain it properly to the girl however, she was once more cut off by her ward;

Shirou shook his head while looking at Sakura with serious eyes. "No, Sakura. I understand why you would think that, but a vigilante is simply someone who takes the law into their own hands. To be a true superhero, you'd need superpowers and if possible, approval of the government." He explained. "The one who did this is in fact committing a punishable crime by hunting down the gangs."

Seeing that Sakura looked upset again at that, Taiga spoke up at once: "Ah, don't worry about it. The cops could never catch someone who can take down so many men in so short a time without leaving any traces. Hell, I don't think most of them will even try. They aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed you know."

Now Sakura turned a scandalized look at the English teacher, apparently forgetting her distress. "Fujimura-sensei!" She exclaimed. "You shouldn't say such things about the police. They are working very hard to protect us."

"Some are." Taiga admitted, before waving a dismissive hand. "But most of them are not trying to protect us. Don't forget I am the granddaughter of the boss of the local Yakuza. I speak with officers and detectives all the time during work. Most of them are lazier than even the worst student I've ever had. There are only two that I could confidently say work hard and work well."

Seeing she now had the undivided attention of both teens in front of her, she continued: "It is incredible vexing to have to deal with the others, a sentiment shared by most of my employees and by many civilians".

Taiga now leaned forward, pointing her finger at them. "If you are ever in need of help, come to me, grandpops or if there is no other choice, to two detectives. Ask for either detective Osaki Koyo or detective Yomaura Taya. Remember, most are only lax, but there are also very corrupt people working there, some of which really give me the creeps."

Her young wards stared at her for a moment, being shocked speechless as she had expected them to be, before Shirou nodded seriously and Sakura folded her hands under her chin. "We promise, Fujimura-sensei." The girl murmured.

Taiga grinned at the both of them, very happy with their acquiescence, as this was absolutely no joking matter.

With a smile, the English teacher reached out and patted Sakura on the head. "Thank you, Sakura-chan. I appreciate your seriousness in this matter."

The plum-haired girl looked at her with a very serious look in her eyes, nodding her head gravely. It was probably intended to come over as solemn, but it mostly made Taiga want to scoop the smaller girl up in a hug. Cute!

"Say." Shirou suddenly said, sounding very regretful for interrupting the bonding moment. "Not that I don't appreciate the life-lessons, but aren't we quite late for school already?"

Looking away from Sakura, Taiga took a glance on the clock, which revealed that, yes, they were indeed late for their respective professions and would have to rush if they wanted to make it in time now.

Hastily cleaning up the table, the three said their goodbyes before sprinting off to their respective destinations. Shirou and Sakura to their schools and Taiga to Homurahara for her job.

* * *

Shirou was walking over street in a calm pace. Unlike most of the days before, this outing of his was not to do groceries, or to go to school, or even to go out and be a vigilante. No, currently he was dressed in neat clothes and on his way to his new job. Today, he had the evening shift.

Taking down the gangs and training with his new powers and Mjolnir weren't the only things Shirou had been doing during the holiday. He had also found the time to apply for the job he had wanted at cafe The Copenhagen, as he had been intending to do from the very start of the break.

He had gone over personally in order to apply, what had apparently already scored him points with the owner, as most other applicants had only sent a vague e-mail indicating they wanted the job. How on Earth those people could think that was enough still puzzled Shirou up until this very day.

But it had of course not been enough to land him the job immediately. Shirou had first been taken to a back room in order to be interviewed to see whether he had the necessary qualities for the profession of working in a cafe-and-store.

That had gone rather well in Shirou's opinion, or at least, Otoko-san, the daughter of the owner and the one who had taken the interview, had seemed content with his answers. The first part of the interview had mostly consisted of inquiries to his motivation to get the job, any kind of prior experience and looking over his application form with him.

During the interview, he had also made some small talk with Otoko-san, who apparently preferred to be called by her nick-name: Neko-san. Shirou had obliged to that request, and had asked her why they were hiring now all of a sudden, while they hadn't done so in the past.

Apparently, the number of customers had been increasing over the years, and she and her father couldn't keep up, forcing them to hire help in order to manage the cafe efficiently. It didn't help that all of their other employees were as trustworthy as a house of carts on a windy day.

The second part of the interview wasn't so much Neko-san asking questions, as it had been a practical test. He had been asked to go through a trial run in the cafe. Just a day spend working to test his aptitude for waiting, cooking and cleaning. Not seeing any problem with that, Shirou had accepted.

During that day, Shirou had served people, cleaned the cafe when needed, tended to the shop, and manned the counter. Even though he had had no previous experience working in an official establishment, it all went very easy for him, almost natural really.

Thankfully, there hadn't been any unruly or difficult customers that day. Those could appear at any moment, according so Neko-san, but he hadn't seen any. The red-haired teen could have handled them easily enough of course, but using violence on the first day was never a good idea.

At the end of the day, he had heard the verdict about his work; He had really managed to make a good impression according to Neko-san, who'd had nothing but words of praise for him during the entire day, so he could consider himself hired.

When he had revealed that he was also adept at repairing and maintaining all kinds of electronic equipment, the deal had been sealed completely.

He felt somewhat bad about denying others a job, but that hadn't stopped him from delivering a stellar performance every day he had been working at the cafe so far. Even Hotaruzuka-san, the actual owner, had indicated that he was very happy with Shirou's work. According to Neko-san, getting praise from him was extraordinarily difficult, so he really had to be doing something right.

And now he was on his way again to help them out. It was a regular work-day, so he didn't expect all too many customers, but there would still be a fair amount of them, enough to warrant him coming over to pitch in with the work.

Reaching the cafe after a thirty-minute walk, he first greeted Hotaruzuka-san and Neko-san, who were glad to see him, as the other employee hadn't shown up today. Shaking his head at the man's laxness, Shirou began working.

He rolled up his sleeves, eliciting a whistle from Neko-san for some reason, and got to it. There was enough for him to do after all. During the next hour, Shirou cleaned the floors and the free tables, served over forty people, took some work over from the cook, brought people their meals when those had been prepared and even managed to find some time to repair a broken dish-washer.

It was definitely a lot of hard work, but Shirou didn't mind it in the slightest. It allowed him to fall into a flow, with his body on automatic pilot and his mind elsewhere, and elsewhere meant of course with his upcoming mission to break into the precinct.

Shirou had decided to post-pone the break-in, until the cells there were somewhat emptier. When he had checked out the station again yesterday, he had discovered that those cells were so full that it would be impossible for him to interrogate one of the present criminals without setting off the rest. With numbers that high, there would always be one able to sound an alarm.

The only way to avoid that was to kill the lot of them, and that was not something he was willing to do. Taking them down in the field was one thing, but killing them in their cells was much too far for Shirou.

He didn't know exactly how long he would have to wait for an opening, but he hoped it wouldn't be too long, as every moment wasted here meant another person could be abducted by the Magus behind it all. Because of this, Shirou intended to keep himself prepared at all times to take advantage of any possible openings, as he couldn't afford to lose the first opportunity.

Having properly went over that in his mind, Shirou went back to what Taiga had said this morning about the competency of the law-enforcement in the city, or rather their lack thereof.

Shirou had already been told early on in his budding hero-career by Kiritsugu that the police in Fuyuki-City were incompetent and corrupt. It was something caused and encouraged by the Mages-Association, because it made it easier for them to hide the Grail Wars from the public eye.

That also meant though that the people here would have to deal with said incompetent force outside of the Grail Wars as well, to their detriment It was very lucky for Fuyuki-City that the Fujimura-clan was present to keep the peace, or the city might have become a playground for criminals.

It hadn't come as a blow to him to hear the truth of the situation from Taiga, but he could tell Sakura had been greatly upset by it. He had thus done his very best this evening to comfort her and he was reasonably sure he had succeeded. She had left with a smile at least after he'd spend an hour fussing over her.

It was probably for the best he told Ayako and Issei as soon as possible as well.

There was a slight spark of hope though in Taiga's story. She had explicitly mentioned two detectives that were in fact honest and he doubted that they really were absolutely the only ones. The city wouldn't have been able to function if they were. Nevertheless, if he ever needed contacts in the police, those were the ones he would have to go to.

' _Come, what were their names again? Ah yes, Osaki Koyo and Yomaura Taya.'_

Useful information.

With that subject behind him however, his mind strayed once more towards his heroics in general, this time mostly on the effect he was having on the world.

Shirou had been going strong for the past two weeks and had taken down most, if not all, of the organized crime in Fuyuki-City. Still, he wondered whether he was actually making a difference or not.

He had seen it in Sawachika's mind; the sheer number of people the crook had had under his command, every single one of them a criminal. Then there were the people in his city not under his command, a far greater number than those who were, and even that group was nothing compared to the number of criminals in the whole world.

In Fuyuki-City, criminals still roamed, though not organized anymore, and there would always be coming more even if he got them all for now. Not to mention, his hometown was only one city in the Kyoto-region, there were hundreds like it, all of them full of bad elements as well.

How was he supposed to take care of them all? What could he do against that kind of opposition? And what of the villains outside of the Kyoto-region, in the rest of Japan? Asia? The entirety of the mundane world? And even the Moonlit World?

It was a number of opponents that seemed endless, each and every one of them out to harm and hurt others, and it was up to him to save those others.

How could he, a third-rate Magus without any real skill, influence or contacts, ever deal with all of that?

Mjolnir had increased his potential, but also increased his responsibility with that. With a divine weapon, he couldn't limit himself to a few individuals anymore, he had a whole world to save now.

Sure, Mjolnir could help with those responsibilities, but that left much of the work in the hands of the hammer. If that was the case, maybe the hammer should have picked a better wielder, someone with more power and potential than Shirou had.

Was he even worthy of Mjolnir?

Would he ever become a hero?

…

"Excuse me, waiter. Can I order a drink please?"

The sudden voice roused Shirou from his darkening thoughts. He quickly looked around to find the origin, eventually finding it sitting at one of the tables.

Making his way over, the red-haired Magus took the time to observe the unusual guest. He was a male, West-European or American if he had to guess. Very old too, with wrinkles everywhere. He had short graying hair and a thin moustache. He also wore sunglasses for some reason, but Shirou could still feel the wise gaze set on him.

After the man had placed his order and Shirou had immediately retrieved his drink for him, he made to walk away again, dark thoughts intruding in his mind again, but a hand suddenly placed on his shoulder kept him back.

Shirou was momentarily shocked at the strength in the hand, as it was easily keeping him back. That was, pardon the bragging, no small feat, even if Shirou wasn't putting much effort into walking away at the moment.

"You seem very troubled, my boy." The man spoke, prompting Shirou to pay attention again. "While you may not know me, perhaps I can be of help anyway, as a wise old man? I promise no one will hear anything of this conversation if you don't want anyone to know."

The golden-eyed hero hesitated. He had indeed never met this man before, but both his instinct and Mjolnir were telling him to trust the man. Mjolnir even seemed to recognize the man, odd as that was. That, coupled with the sheer wisdom in the man's gaze and the calm compassion in his voice, made the offer a tempting one.

After giving the man a pensive stare, Shirou eventually decided to tell the man a shortened and somewhat abridged version of what was troubling him. Certainly, that couldn't hurt.

"I... well… I recently have begun with a task, to fulfill an old dream." He said quietly, fighting the urge to fidget. "But I see now how monumental that task actually is, and how far away my dream still remains, and I don't know if I can handle it. I don't even know whether I am the correct person for the job or not. I want to do it, but…"

Shirou trailed off when the man held up a hand, smiling understandingly. "I understand completely what you mean, my boy." The senior said, taking his hand off Shirou's shoulder. "I myself often felt during my life that I had bitten off more than I could chew, just like you are now feeling. I wondered whether I could truly accomplish what I set out to do, I wondered if there wasn't someone better, someone smarter, someone more creative than me who could do a better job.

But, my boy, those are not questions you must ask yourself. You have committed yourself to a path, I can see it in you. You may doubt you can see it to its end, but standing still to doubt is useless in these situations. Don't give up because it seems hard or because you believe someone else might be better. Fight vigorously until the end. I have seen enough of life to know someone like you will succeed, no doubt about it."

Shirou stared at the man for a moment, the man who had flawlessly picked up what he had been trying to say and had words of advice ready at once. "Right." He murmured, somewhat heartened but still not quite sure. "Thank you, but are you sure? I mean, you say you see conviction and ability in me, but I don't know if I'm worthy of what I can do. What if I fail? What if I'm not good enough…?"

The man interrupted him again: "That, my boy." He huffed. "Is absolute nonsense. I have seen many people like you, with the fire burning in their eyes. Each and every one of them succeeded, boy, and the fire burns in you brighter than in anyone I have ever seen before in this verse."

The man then finished his drink, slapping an amount of money on the table that was outrageously more than the price of said drink. The senior stood up then, grabbing his coat again and making to leave, but turning back to Shirou one last time.

"Mjolnir did not choose wrongly, Emiya Shirou." He then said, striking Shirou completely speechless with his words. "It chose you because on this whole planet, in this whole Omniverse, you are the worthiest. You are the one to wield it. You will succeed in your task, boy, better than you can now imagine. Take that from one who had seen and helped many heroes reach the top."

With those words, the old man turned around and ran out of the cafe, with a speed that should have been impossible for a man his age. And while he ran outside, he let out a cry:

"And so I say; EXCELSIOR!"

Shirou, getting over his surprise at that moment, immediately sprinted after the man, running unto the street and looking all around him, but to his further shock, he couldn't see the man anywhere at all anymore. The old geezer was gone, disappeared as if he were never there.

The red-haired Magus stumbled back inside, not able to believe what had just happened. Did that old man know what he was? Did he know what was going on with Mjolnir? It definitely seemed so.

An unconcerned hum from Mjolnir confirmed this, as the hammer seemed completely certain that the man knew everything, but also that it wouldn't be a problem.

Our favourite hero grabbed his head in his hands in confusion for a moment, frantically thinking back on the conversation he'd just had. Excluding the major shock at the end, it had been an enlightening talk for Shirou. The man had said exactly what he had needed to hear.

His concerns, though not entirely gone, were certainly soothed now. Standing still to doubt was useless, he had to more forward.

Still, was that man some kind of hero-expert or something? To be so knowledgeable about what would bother heroes and be able to dispel their worries with a few words.

It was heartening that people like that were out there. Shirou didn't really know what to think of some old man knowing all of his secrets, but at least it was that particular old man.

So for now, back to observing the police station. It wouldn't do to leave a job unfinished after all.

* * *

Somewhere else in the city, one Yomaura Taya was just preparing herself to go to sleep. She'd gotten up very early this morning again, and she wanted to catch up on her precious shut-eye now that she had the chance.

After changing into her nightclothes and brushing her teeth, she fell down on her futon for a well-deserved rest. Before she fell asleep though, her mind went out to her Senpai, as it tended to do whenever she wasn't deeply focusing on something else.

He really was a hard and dedicated worker, whom she had been lucky to be partnered to. He was probably still up working at this very moment, and wouldn't be going to sleep for quite a while yet, if he didn't just pull an all-nighter again. He truly was so motivated. She only hoped he wouldn't break under all of the stress he was putting himself under.

The situation at the precinct for instance. It was true that the other officers and detectives were lazy at best and probably corrupt at worst, but most of them were still on the good side of the law. They might not do much, but they didn't do anything to hinder justice either, save for some exceptions.

But her Senpai only looked at those exceptions, and forced himself to pick up all of the slack, despite how much that was.

She sighed deeply, they were already working on weeding out the bad apples now that they had the time. The arrest of nearly every criminal in the city had cleared their schedule quite a bit after all. Despite that though, her Senpai wouldn't rest until it was done, claiming he was still fine.

He had been acting strange yesterday and today though. He had been skittish, almost acting like he was expecting something to jump him at any moment. When asked about it, he would reply he had felt someone walk over his grave or something. It was completely unlike the confident, stern and unmovable detective she had come to know him as.

It was probably nothing though, she decided. Just the pressure of the recent case getting to him. She would have to tell his daughters to get him to sleep more. It was unhealthy to be up for so long as he was.

Plan of action for tomorrow firmly in mind, Taya closed her eyes…

Only to widen them in shock as she felt cold shivers run up her spine, unlike anything she had felt in recent years. It was only for a second, but that was enough for her to fall back into _that_ mindset, before she suppressed it again.

For a moment there, she understood why her Senpai had acted like he did the past days. For that one second, she too had felt as if something had walked over her grave, as if something was approaching fast…

Then the feeling disappeared. Taya could only blink for a few moments, trying to recall the sensation she had felt. She couldn't though. Had it been just her imagination then?

Maybe the stress was getting to her as well. There wasn't really anything to do about it if that was the case, except rest. So Taya, exhausted as she was, put any thought about the case or mysterious Gravewalkers out of her mind and fell asleep right away.

* * *

 **And so we end the chapter.**

 **Okay, that was actually kind of fun. These scenes were a blast to write, all of them. I got in the flow, if ya catch my drift. Don't expect every chapter from now on to have more than twenty-thousand words though, it's a lot of work.**

 **I know, I know. Not a lot of curbstomping, not a lot of Moonlit World, but the gangs needed to be dealt with first. Shirou would not leave such a job half-finished and it is still the good fight, even if it isn't all that impressive. Turns out there is a lot behind it though…**

 **Lots of things happened this chapter, and I'll try to go over them one by one in case not everyone managed to get the gist of it:**

 **-We have Shirou unconsciously slightly emulating Thor by throwing an end-of-the-holiday party. Again, don't expect too much of this kind of thing in my story, Shirou won't be influenced much by Thor, only small things that are funny or convenient, nothing too big.**

 **-We meet Ayako, who is going to have a more prominent role in this story than she has in canon or most other fanfictions. She won't suddenly become a big-time major character of course, but she will be dragged more and more into the plot as the story goes on.**

 **-We have Shirou beginning to unravel a scheme from an unknown user of Thaumaturgy who is using gangs to easily obtain many people for equally unknown purposes. The last real gang of Fuyuki is now taken down.**

 **-Osaki Koyo and Yomaura Taya are introduced to the story as the only competent officers in the city. They too will be returning whenever it is convenient for the plot.**

 **-Taiga gets serious when she shares her experiences with the local law-enforcement with her precious, innocent sweethearts in order to prepare them some more for the horrors of the world.**

 **-Shirou works at The Copenhagen now. Yes, I know in canon he got that job a full five years before the Grail War started, but in my story, it is two years.**

 **-Yomaura get premonitions.**

 **And that concludes the shortened version of the chapter.**

 **Now, Ayako seems a bit attracted to Shirou, but who can blame her? He's Shirou after all. This is for now purely physical crush, but in two years, that can develop into a lot more, if you know what I mean, 'wink wink, nudge nuge'.**

 **Please keep in mind as well that I am** **not** **trying to bash the police of Fuyuki-City here. They are still capable of catching criminals, but they are lazy slackers who'd prefer it if others did it. They cut corners, don't properly write reports and that kind of thing.**

 **There are a few corrupt ones, but not all of them are so, not by a long shot even. The grumblings of this chapter were because of the POV's. Osaki is frustrated because he is driven and they are not, Taiga is annoyed they are barely any help against gangs, and Shirou is angry because he knows of the true reason behind their incompetence.**

 **I have always considered it strange that in canon there were no huge actions after the debacles with the murders committed by Lancer, the attack on the school by Rider and the messes in town courtesy of Caster, Angra Mainyu and the rest. So I figured the Magus Association purposely kept the police incompetent to hide their little war better.**

 **Osaki and Yomaura, being from out of town and very new respectively, are not influenced and as such possible allies for Shirou.**

 **And a pep-talk at the end for Shirou. From a very special someone, doing a cameo. RIP**

 **Alright, I figure you've seen enough bold text for now, have a nice day.**


	9. Breaking into the Law

**Breaking into the law**

Detective Osaki was just leaning back in his chair with a cup of tea, sitting contently at his desk, doing nothing in particular, when suddenly no less than fifteen reports were literally thrown onto said desk.

Before he could protest or inquire what this was all about, or even snap at someone for the carelessness shown, the one who had delivered them had already walked on, ignoring all of his callings to come back with the easy tread only a born lazy person could have displayed after committing such an audacious action.

Osaki grumbled under his breath, but he was not truly upset anymore, as he had found it wasn't worth the energy to get upset. This was hardly the first time such a thing had happened after all, or the second, or the tenth, or even the hundredth time. Nor would it be the last, not by far.

Filing quickly through the reports, he saw that they were about all kinds of subjects, from break-ins and theft, to muggings and assault. Nothing too difficult, as the perpetrators had already been caught in most of the cases, and only the paperwork of the cases hadn't been filed, as he had expected.

He would do it, of course, as he knew that if he didn't, no one would, save for the few other competent people working in law-enforcement at the moment. But Osaki knew those people were getting their own extra paperwork as well, so it wouldn't be right to make them handle these ones too.

Osaki sighed, putting the reports aside for now to go over them later, probably tomorrow. Today, he would first sit out his short break that he had been enjoying up until now and after that go over the case of the vigilante with Yomaura in one of the somewhat more private rooms. His partner and he had decided against discussing the case in the central room of the building, as neither of them completely trusted most of the people present. Both cops and criminals were constantly watching them after all.

Dropping the paperwork that he had just involuntarily received in a drawer of his desk, Osaki went back to his perfectly made tea, which was still hot, thank Kami. And as he was sitting there, taking small sips from his heavenly tea, he managed to feel truly at peace for just a fleeting moment. Sometimes, having a short break was very nice. He could almost feel the stress dispelling in his mind.

It couldn't last.

Barely one minute later, the alarm he had previously set on his phone went off, signalling the end of the aforementioned short break. It was of course annoying to have his peace of mind and his break cut short like that, but Osaki was nothing if not professional. He didn't complain, but instead threw back the rest of his tea and made his way over to Yomaura.

After rising two stairs and crossing a couple of hallways, he entered the small but functional room they had picked. He saw to his satisfaction that much of the evidence they had collected over the past weeks was already put out on display. A whiteboard had also been put in the center of the room, photos were laid down on the table, and large stacks of paper had been put on some of the chairs, ready to be picked up and read.

Stepping inside, the first thing Osaki did was lock the door and lower the lamellae, making sure no one would be able to see or hear anything inside, or to come into the room unannounced. For now, Yomaura and he would keep everything they discussed here a secret. Or at least, as much as they practically could.

Having properly sealed off the room against overly curious or spying co-workers, Osaki turned around to face his partner, as the red-haired woman smiled at him before focusing on her task again.

He still greeted her properly, getting a grunt in return. Such a thing might have been seen as impolite, but Osaki did not mind, for he knew she would have greeted him properly under normal circumstances. Besides, how could he be mad at her when she had worked so hard?

Once more his Kohai had really come through. While he had been busy filing paperwork and getting the necessary permission from their superiors to do research of their own without having to inform their colleagues, his partner had completely prepared the room for their brainstorm-session of today. There were even snacks and drinks standing ready on the table.

Those things, along with all of the previously mentioned evidence and reports made for a chaotic yet interpretable picture, seemingly random but actually full of order and precision in every aspect, precisely the way he and Yomaura preferred it. And speaking of his Kohai, she was currently standing in front of the whiteboard, writing on it with one of the markers that came with the purchase of such a board.

A quick glance revealed just what she was writing down so ardently; Several clusters of words, written next to, under, and above each other. Among them were both all of the evidence they had, as well as the most important questions about the dreaded vigilante they had at the moment.

There was very little of the first and a lot of the latter, unfortunately.

Most of the evidence they had collected until now, as well as many of their theories were being written out properly, if somewhat shortened by the lack of space. It seemed his partner was almost done, but, rather than standing around doing nothing like an idiot just waiting for her to finish, the older detective grabbed a few reports from one of the piles on the chairs. After that, he sat down on the table, and started flipping through a report randomly, patiently waiting for the redhead to finish.

Eventually, she did indeed finish writing, and Osaki stood up at once to stand next to her, joining her in looking at the whiteboard. It was covered in writing, with the words being sometimes big and sometimes small, the distinction probably depending on the amount of space free on the whiteboard at the moment of writing. At the very centre of the board, with a drawn circle around it, was one word:

'Who?'

And that was the big question of course. If they figured out the identity of the vigilant and managed to find and successfully arrest him or her, somehow, then getting to know all the other details wouldn't be that difficult anymore, hopefully.

The identity of the mysterious vigilante was a complete unknown to them however, as they didn't have any concrete or even circumstantial evidence whatsoever that even just hinted at any kind of clue to discover their opponent's name. Every time they went out to arrest a gang that the vigilante had just rolled up, they had tried to find clues, but every time they had come up short.

It didn't make any sense to Osaki how a man, or maybe even multiple men if he and Yomaura were particularly unlucky in this case, could sneak into a heavily guarded building, fry the lights of said building extra permanently, dodge any attack made by the very much armed crooks, and then successfully and efficiently take down all their opponents, while leaving around enough evidence for the police to actually arrest everyone present.

Indeed, when one looked at every case individually, nothing would stick out at all. Today though, Yomaura and he would start comparing all the cases of the past weeks in search of a recurring factor, as those were often the most useful clues.

First things first though, he decided, as he looked at Yomaura:

"How is it going with the mass-arrest of that last big gang the vigilante attacked?" He asked, deciding to get that out of the way first. "Is their arrest guaranteed?"

He had only been able to follow the case peripherally over the past week, but he was at least somewhat aware that things weren't looking all that well for that last gang, although he wasn't very sure of the specifics of the matter.

Yomaura turned towards him and grinned savagely, making Osaki raise an eyebrow at the for her unusual facial expression.

"They are definitely going behind bars." She said with glee. "With all of the drugs, illegal weapons, and information they had in their base, there was never any chance that they were going to walk free. It was by far the most evidence we have ever found in one place, so those guys are going down hard."

That was excellent news, and not very surprising. It had been exactly the same for all of the other gangs they had arrested over the course of the holidays after all. Well, 'holidays'… He only called them as such because his daughters had been free during those two weeks. He himself and Yomaura and almost every other co-worker had been working hard as ever.

' _Teenagers really have it easy'._ He thought wistfully, thinking back fondly to the time all responsibility ended with school and one didn't do anything besides that.

Back to the previous topic. This gang would be one of many to end up behind bars. Even though they had arrested hundreds of criminals, only very few members, maybe twenty all together, had been able to walk away from prison, and that was only through what Osaki suspected to be hefty bribes or sob stories. Most of the criminals would have their careers cut short for the coming years however, and if his partner was to be believed, the entirety of the last gang was included in the latter category.

Now if only they could find and arrest the rampaging vigilante as well, then his job would become a lot less stressful for the near future. At least, until new gangs would spring up and they would have to start all over again.

Coming out of his musings, with his eyes now again narrowing, Osaki turned towards his partner. He had noticed something odd earlier which he definitely wanted to address, for his own peace of mind if nothing else.

"You seem very satisfied." He remarked, bringing attention to her abnormally vicious grin. Yomaura was very driven, but never quite as… spiteful? Gleeful? Joyful at others' misery?... as this.

"More than normally I mean, as if you are happy these criminals in particular are going behind bars." He continued, giving up on finding the correct word to describe the smile. All the options available sounded so unlike his gentle Kohai.

Said Kohai blinked, her grin dropping for a moment as she went over his words in her head. Then it returned full force, now also with an angry glint in her eyes.

"You could say indeed that I am very satisfied, Senpai." She growled, though he could sense the anger wasn't directed at him. "You should read the report of what the leader has told us during his interrogation. Apparently, that man was a veteran in the gang-business, having been a big-shot gangster boss in another town before coming here. I guarantee you that you will be very ticked off as well when you read what that beast has done over the years!"

Osaki almost took a step back at the sheer rage in his normally so quiet-spoken Kohai's voice. Her grin was long gone, replaced with a scowl, eyes narrowed to slits and teeth bared at the world at large.

Whatever the man had done, it had to have been something very unpleasant, Osaki decided. O joy, just what he had been looking forward to, more depravity and misdeeds in this world that went unpunished for way too long.

He would still read the report of course. The rage that Yomaura was displaying was unnerving, but he had already seen vicious and cruel acts enough over the years, he could take it to read about a few more of them. He could not guarantee though that he would be unaffected, he was just human after all.

He was just about to move on from the topic, when he remembered something. Something from the night of the arrest of the last gang itself.

"Would this particular leader also be the one who was wounded so gravely by the vigilante?" He asked, wondering if the vigilante had felt the same emotions as his partner was now apparently feeling.

A firm nod confirmed for him that it was indeed that gang leader that had been wounded so heavily. "Yes, and I can't do anything but agree with the actions of the vigilante. This guy deserved every bit of that punishment and more." Yomaura growled, flipping her hair aggressively.

Digging up the report of the interrogation from one of the piles present in the room before Osaki could react to her statement, Yomaura handed it to her Senpai, who proceeded to read it with a shrug of his shoulders, while she went back to comparing crime-scenes for now.

The frown that had been present on Osaki's face ever since his Kohai had first blown up grew deeper and deeper during the reading he was doing. A scowl joined the frown after he had read the first page and his teeth had gritted by the time that he arrived at the end of it. He had seen his fair share of brutality during his job, but this was definitely one of the worst cases he had ever seen.

This would be cause enough for a spirited individual to beat the perpetrator half to death. It did leave him with the question of how the vigilante had known about the leader's crimes, but perhaps this indicated a personal issue between the two? It was weak, but still at least some kind of lead. Something to look into later.

Putting the report down, he returned his attention to Yomaura, knowing now why she was angry. To the best of his knowledge, she had not ever handled a case like this, so this first time was bound to upset her.

Coming to stand beside her before the whiteboard, he gave her his own opinion;

"I can see why someone would attack this man so brutally. What he has done is no doubt disgusting and immoral to the highest degree." He gave a sigh here. "But you understand the vigilante is still breaking the law and as such has to be arrested?"

"I know, Senpai. All I am saying is that I will compliment him when we arrest him. I am not going to sabotage the investigation or something like that." She professed, crossing her arms before her, as if the ward off any notion that she would do something so underhanded.

"Alright, alright." Osaki huffed, slightly amused at his Kohai's behaviour. "I believe you. Let us now focus on actually catching that vigilante before making plans about what to do once we have him in custody."

Yomaura nodded solemnly, indicating towards her whiteboard again. "As you can see here, Senpai, I have made a list of things that were the same or at least comparable on many of the crime-scenes. Most of the things on the list weren't present in every last one of the cases of course, but they were present often enough to draw my attention."

The red-haired detective paused here, casting a glance at him, prompting Osaki to give her a nod to show he was still following her.

Seeing the nod, his partner continued her story. "The very first obvious thing was the one we talked about during the investigation of the office complex: The power network that was somehow completely short-circuited."

She took a breath, checked another piece of paper, and continued; "Like we determined, such a thing happened as well during many of the other outings of the vigilante. The network was often taken down through only one power outlet. We couldn't figure out exactly what the vigilante did to it, but it left the power outlet he had chosen as one big molten mess of plastic and wires."

"Was it the same with the hide-out of the last gang?" Osaki inquired, fully expecting a positive response to that question.

He didn't get one.

"No." Yomaura grumbled as she shifted through the papers again, reading them at a speed Osaki would never be able to match. "In the case of the last one, _all_ of the outlets seemed to have melted, just like all of the cables. We don't really have an air-tight explanation, but according to the tech-guys, it's like an enormous amount of electricity was forced through the network at once, overloading it completely. It is not unlike what happens when a building is hit by a direct lightning strike."

"Lightning strike?" Osaki repeated, now again recalling something from the past weeks. "I suppose there have been a lot of storms during the past month, so it is not entirely inconceivable that a building was struck by lightning. The power then failed probably as a direct result of that, especially since it was an old building which may not have had the proper protection against that kind of thing."

"Indeed." His partner said. "That's the general consensus at the moment, though it remains odd that the vigilante arrived at the exact opportune moment for him to strike. But since no one can control the weather, we're just going with him being insanely lucky for now."

Sighing once in consternation, the red-haired detective took a sip of a water bottle before continuing: "The gang members we interrogated did indeed confirm that there was quite the thunderclap at the moment the lights went all out, and right after that happened, when they were confused and shocked, the vigilante attacked, taking advantage of the chaos."

Osaki gave a loud huff at that, which was answered with a small smile by Yomaura. This vigilante really had to have the luck of the devil to have a lightning strike shut down the power like that when he was just about to attack.

"It also seems the crooks had prepared themselves very well for the attack this time, which they apparently somewhat anticipated." Yomaura went on, lightly tapping her lower lip in thought. "They had put guards and bright lights everywhere in order to see and intercept him, but that lucky lightning strike apparently ruined their plan."

Devil's luck indeed then. And support from a higher being of some kind wasn't out if the question either. Osaki shook his head, he wasn't a believer of any kind, but instances like this sometimes made him wonder if there wasn't actually something out there. He'd seen plenty of instances which made him believe in something _down_ there after all, so there had to be something up as well, right?

"It fits the vigilante's preferred MO." He said in response to Yomaura's earlier words. "Strike during a storm if it is at all possible, and always during the night. The gang preparing for him is new though. The leader, despite his depravity, was more competent than the others then?"

"Most likely, if his ramblings about being the true leader of all the gangs in the city hold any truth to them." His red-haired partner sighed. "I don't know if I should be happy that we have that guy in custody now or sad that we had never even heard so much as a rumour about a central leader before his arrest."

"Be both." Osaki advised sagely. "And while you're at it, continue your list."

Yomaura put her hand to her chin in thought and resumed laying out her summary. "Further similarities on the crime-scenes were the efficient and ruthless way in which the criminals were taken down, the fact that all fights occurred during the night, and the complete lack of any kind of blood, hair or other kind of sample from the vigilante himself, or herself I suppose."

"Wasn't there also a theory about the vigilante using a ranged weapon of some kind?" The older detective inquired. "With some of the criminals declaring they had been knocked out while standing on an open terrain without anyone coming close to them?"

The question was answered by a firm nod. "Indeed, Senpai, and that brings us to our next subject: Any similarities in the statements made by the arrested gang members. Of course, only coherent and reasonable statements were included in this. I did not listen to either insults or rambling."

Grabbing yet another pile of paper without looking away from the white-board, she started filing through the reports at high speed. Osaki really had to admire her efficiently and ability to remember where she had placed everything.

"They all declared that they barely had time, if any time at all, to defend themselves against the assault. The vigilante completely blitzed them in any and all ways, with even their knives and guns proving useless against him. We do still have that one case though where a criminal claimed he hit the vigilante with a bullet, a bullet that was deflected by the armour he was supposedly wearing, but that guy was proven to be high that night, so that was not valid."

Osaki nodded, he had heard that story as well three weeks back and had immediately discarded it as nonsense. Deflecting bullets, really? Not even the very best of armour or bullet-proof vests could deflect bullets without getting a scratch on it, like the thug had claimed. Well, some could, but those were too heavy to lug around while jumping around and beating up thugs.

"This high-speed-takedown that the vigilante seems to favour has left us with very little other information we could obtain through interviews." Yomaura then bemoaned. "Really, why does mister Vigilante have to make it so difficult for us."

That got a laugh out of Osaki.

"Well, Yomaura, I think it's very prudent of him to be very careful, since we are in fact trying to find him in order to take him in and put him in prison." He said after he'd gotten his laughter under control. "So we'll have to work hard if we want to arrest him, as I deem it very unlikely he'll come to us any time soon."

Yomaura pouted at this laughter, before smiling as well. "It would be easy though." She remarked. "To have him come to our houses or the police station out of his own initiative. But I guess that'll never happen."

Voicing his agreement, Osaki then moved on to the last topic of today. That last topic being discussing the most important and biggest questions they had about the vigilante.

There were actually quite a few questions they had; Most of them related to his fighting ability, speed and strength, the way he got his information about the location of the gangs, and the way he short-circuited the power-network of the buildings.

But the greatest and most important question that they had was of course the identity of the vigilante. If they could answer that question, all the other answers would follow swiftly.

It was unfortunate that there was very little evidence, concrete or substantial, present at every crime-scene. They didn't have the slightest clue save for a few very vague descriptions they got from the arrested thugs. It was fortunate on the other hand that all those descriptions were alike for the most part.

They showed the picture of a man, clad in black, with a mask in front of his face and a hood of some kind to hide his hair. Apparently, this man was very short, with most of the witnesses declaring they were a great deal taller than the one who took them down, to their great ire and annoyance.

No one who had ever heard the vigilante talk, if there even were any such persons to begin with, had come forth with a statement describing his voice, so they were out of luck on that front.

Basically, they had a whole lot of nothing that they had just summarized, with none of this bringing them any closer to figuring out the identity of the vigilante, as the evidence was simply too unclear and too lacking in detail.

Still, despite the unfavourable circumstances, Osaki did have one half-serious theory left he wanted to share with his partner, if only to disprove it as well.

"It is most likely the vigilante is from Fuyuki-City and is in fact a teenager or a very young adult, though I cannot guarantee the truth of this statement." He thus said, brining up said theory, curious about what his partner would think of it.

It earned him a surprised look, followed by a contemplative one. He waited with speaking, letting her go over the evidence again first to figure out how he had arrived at such a conclusion. For a while, there was no sound but for the ruffling and shifting of paper, while the older detective himself used that time to check outside the room to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Paranoia, hurray.

"Ah ha!" Yomaura then exclaimed, holding up a piece of paper triumphantly. "You mean to say that the lower height of the vigilante could very well indicate a lower age, leading you to believe that they are in fact young." Osaki nodded to that. That was the first step.

"If one then takes into account that all take-downs happened in Fuyuki, not even once outside of its borders, one could conclude that the vigilante lacks a means to get to other cities, indicating an age too young to be allowed to drive and too young to use other means with a guardian." She continued. Also correct.

"Those two facts coupled with the excessive anger displayed during the beat-down of the last boss, which may be caused by inexperience and/or being unused to facing vile individuals like that man, led you to believe that the vigilante is young and lives in Fuyuki-City."

Yomaura then looked at him, raising an eyebrow as if challenging him to dispute or question her reasoning. There was no need to dispute it though, as she was fully correct in assuming that it were those details that had led him to his current theory. He could only answer her with a confirmation.

"It is of course still a mystery just how that one guy was able to combat so many opponents at once, especially if we are right and it is a teenager, but for now, let us focus on finding the person first. After that, we'll try to figure out the 'how'." He then said, as his partner wrote down their current theory on both the white-board and on an empty piece of paper that she had laying around.

"So now we'll just have to check every person in Fuyuki-City who fits the description we have managed to put together." Yomaura said, starting out with a smile, but ending in a frown. "There have to be hundreds if not thousands of teenagers and young adults in this city alone, Senpai, how are we ever going to find the correct one?" She then groused.

Osaki smiled at her, reaching out to pat her on the head. "By being very patient and very thorough, Yomaura." He said, a vicious glint appearing in his eyes. "Most of the people in that age-group will not fit the bill at all, so I'm quite sure we will be able to reduce the list of possible candidates to a few hundred at most in a few months. After that, we'll go into more detail to truly find the perpetrator." Osaki proclaimed, throwing his arms wide in a dramatic gesture.

Next to him, his kohai gave him a firm nod. "Hai, Senpai."

* * *

Meanwhile, Emiya Shirou was once again working very hard on something that should actually have been done by someone else. Story of his life really, but as always, he didn't mind in the slightest. Helping people was what he did best after all. It was woven into his very identity.

Very dramatic words to describe his current situation, but really, what he was doing now wasn't very exciting at all to be honest. He was merely helping Ayako and Sakura out with a small issue of theirs.

That issue being a school party that had gotten slightly out of hand. Why on Earth their school had actual parties he didn't know, but there had apparently been one such party the night before, and the attendants had gone too far in their excitement.

According to Ayako, the party had been a lot of fun, with even Sakura attending it for a while after Ayako had spent entire days trying to convince her, eventually succeeding only through excessive use of puppy dog eyes, which turned out to work surprisingly well on the plum-haired girl. The music had been good, dancing had been fun and the drinks that were available were excellent. All in all, a succeeded event.

It was a real shame though that it had caused quite a bit of a mess all over the school too, along with some broken equipment and furniture. Shirou had never known young teens could be so wild to destroy fridges and break off the legs of a table, but hey, you learn something new every day.

The school had subsequently decreed that since the students were responsible for the mess, they would have to clean it up themselves as well, and if they were incapable of fixing the broken stuff, hire someone with their own money. If they didn't, then the school would not host any parties anymore and all the students involved would be punished severely.

While the mess made up of cups, spilled drinks and candy wraps turned out to be within the capabilities of the students to remove, they had not been able to repair any of the school-equipment. This had resulted in Ayako coming to visit him with a sheepish expression at Saturday morning, asking him to help them out.

He had agreed of course, and had grabbed his toolkit from the shed before following a very thankful Ayako to her school. Once there, they had found Sakura waiting for them, regret clear on the plum-haired girl's face. She had apologized profusely for taking up his time, but he had waved off her concerns and got to work.

He was making good process, mainly focusing on the broken equipment, which he in fact managed to repair in most of the cases, though regrettably, not always.

The two girls who were with him were working very hard as well, putting in their best efforts to clean the mess, steadfastly refusing to take a break even once. As long as he was working, they too would work, as it was unfair to make him do the majority of the work while they were the ones responsible. At least, that was what Ayako had said to him, with Sakura nodding behind her.

Every now and then, other students who had attended the party the night before came by to pitch in for a bit, though they never stayed very long or did very much, to the great displeasure of Ayako, whom Shirou had to calm down a few times when someone had called the brown-haired girl's wrath down upon them by leaving after barely ten minutes of helping.

It went rather well though, as Shirou estimated they would be finished before dinner. Not bad for three teens cleaning a school. By nightfall, the school would be clean and presentable again and the three of them could go home.

Or rather, the four of them could go home, though the last person was not exactly contributing much, despite having been present almost the entire day.

"Don't just stand there staring at nothing, Emiya." A voice then called out to Shirou, who promptly shook his head to dispel his thoughts. Not reacting to the voice, though he noticed Ayako sending a glare at the source, Shirou continued working.

The owner of the voice doing the shouting was Matou Shinji, Sakura's brother. Shirou had met the boy before, but had never truly talked to him beyond a simple greeting, nor had he ever stuck around long enough to get a proper feel for the purple-haired boy.

Today he could though. Shinji had shown up a mere thirty minutes after the main trio had begun their task, and was sticking around even now, several hours after midday. This could have indicated of course that the older Matou-sibling was helping them clean and repair, or at least was encouraging them.

But people who would think that would be wrong.

Ever since Shinji had arrived, he had been doing nothing but hanging around commenting on everyone's work. Some of the other students who had come to help had even been chased away by his words, even when they had been intending to stay longer.

Of course, there were also lazy people who liked to use the older Matou as an excuse to bail, but Shirou was quite sure there had been no less than six people who were truly chased away by Shinji's words. The red-haired magus had of course warned Shinji several times to tone it down when the purple-haired boy had been overstepping his bounds, but it often was too late anyway.

Despite that though, our main trio lasted through it all. Sakura because she was used to her brother being like that, Ayako because she didn't want to give up and surrender to the jerk, and Shirou because he simply wasn't bothered by anything the older Matou had to say.

Because of that, it was fortunate that Shinji had mostly followed the red-haired Magus around. All of his comments about Shirou being an idiot who was too nice for his own good were ignored, which did not seem to discourage the purple-haired boy in the slightest for some reason. He just kept going at it, until Shirou almost had to admire his resolve and determination.

Despite this distraction and sometimes obstruction from the idiot though, the school was clean and the equipment fixed by the time the evening rolled around.

After being thanked by students and staff alike, with Sakura and Ayako being the leading voices, he packed his toolkit again and made to leave the school. He had dinner to prepare after all. Sakura then promised to come to his house right after going home to change out of her working-clothes and Ayako said her goodbyes for the day, as she would be eating with her family. Both girls left after that.

When Shirou wanted to leave himself however, Shinji walked right up to him to stand in his way. Shirou had seen him coming and had had plenty of opportunity to just leave anyway, but the golden-eyed Magus decided to entertain him for the moment. He was probably not planning anything bad.

And indeed, Shinji then laughed out loud, as if Shirou had told him a particularly funny joke, before slapping him on the shoulder. "You may be an idiot, but you sure do good work at least." He proclaimed, throwing his arms out as if he were giving a grand speech. "I think I like you, let's be friends."

Not seeing the harm in this, Shirou nodded calmly. "Very well, let us be friends then." He replied, smiling slightly himself. It would please Sakura if nothing else after all, and maybe allow him to take the purple-haired boy's occasional ire unto himself instead of leaving it on others.

And just like that, they were friends.

It might not make sense for a lot of people, but Shirou had never been one to let himself be bothered by insults and derision. In a way, that made him the perfect friend for someone like Shinji, who pretty much lived his life insulting and deriding others.

Anyway, their friendship was now forged and would hold strong until, one night, it would end, alongside Shinji's grandfather.

* * *

Papers and reports laid strewn about through the guestroom of the Emiya-estate. Plans, unfinished strategies and books about Bounded fields were stacked high in all corners. And amidst the chaos, the golden-eyed owner of all these objects sat, having closed his eyes to think properly.

Back at the evening of his father's death, Kiritsugu had asked three things of him. To become a hero, which he was making significant headway with ever since Mjolnir's arrival; to save himself, something he still did not understand the need for; and saving his adopted little, or big depending on how you looked at it, sister from her abusive family in Germany. That little sister was Illyasviel von Einzbern.

She was Kiritsugu's true-born daughter, the one he had fathered with his dear wife Irisviel and the one he had been trying to save since the end of the Fourth Grail War, until his failing body eventually gave out on him.

Though Kiritsugu had not told Shirou much of his own past at first, he had loosened up considerably after Shirou's training had begun, perhaps because he could actually explain many facets and parts of his life properly then.

The black-haired former mercenary had sometimes spent entire evenings telling his adopted son of his wife Irisviel, his lover Maiya, his own family, though that was limited to his hated father and loved pseudo-mother-slash-trainer, his life as the Magus Killer, and more.

Much of the time however was also spend on telling Shirou of the sister whose case the red-haired teen was looking into now. Kiritsugu's eyes would glaze over at times like that, reminiscing on fond memories no doubt. Shirou had been loath to disturb his father during those moments, and had as such remained quiet, content to just listen to his adoptive father talk.

It had been one of Kiritsugu's biggest regrets that he could not free his daughter from the clutches of the Einzbern, who had been and probably still were doing terrible things to her to prepare her for the next Grail War, in which she would be sacrificed to become the Lesser Grail, just like her mother before her.

Rage had set in when Kiritsugu had been describing his daughter's situation. It had been one of the few times Shirou had seen his dad become truly angry. It had been slightly intimidating, but Shirou had not been afraid, the anger had not been directed at him after all.

It had however spurred him on to make another promise to his father, one that luckily tied in well with his previous and biggest promise. It was a shame however that fulfilling this promise, while not very difficult anymore with his ever-growing powers, would bring a lot of complications with it that would make keeping it much harder in the long term.

He had promised to save Illya. He was also fully intending to make good on that promise, both for his father's sake as well as for Illya herself. No one deserved to be left alone in the claws of people who don't care what happens to you and even actively make your life miserable after all.

Trying to figure out how to get her out of the Einzbern-castle had been one of Shirou's major projects over the years, both when his dad had been alive and after the man's death. He had not made a lot of progress during that time however, as was to be expected of a third-rate to be honest.

The Einzbern-castle where Illya was being held was located in Germany, in a forest far away from any kind of civilisation. It would have been a challenge to even get there in the first place, even though he had been told the exact location by his father. Not to mention that getting back to Fuyuki with a practically kidnapped Homunculus who was supposed to serve as the Lesser Grail as company would be even harder.

And even if getting to the exact location was manageable, and he even had an absolutely fool-proof escape plan to get back to Japan, there was still the problem of actually getting his sister out of the castle itself.

The Einzbern-family was one of the oldest families of Europe, if not the world, famous for their, now long lost, ability to use the third True Magic. Though they surprisingly possessed no branch-families, they were still incredibly influential in almost every corner of the Moonlit World. Their constant creation and sale of excellent Homunculi and their aptitude for Alchemy made them respected and revered everywhere.

As such, their castle was one of the grandest and best-defended places in the world. Numerous Bounded Fields, Homunculus-guards, well-trained Magi and countless other deterrents and defences surrounded the castle at all sides, making getting in by force an almost impossible mission.

His father may have been able to pull it off narrowly in his prime years, with a lot of assistance, resources, a few insiders and months of extensive planning. Those might seem expensive and hard to obtain, but they were all things his dad would have been able to obtain through working together with the enemies of the Einzbern. Kiritsugu had said as much during one of the discussions with Shirou.

But in those last years, his father's prime had long since passed. Not only had he become old, but he had also been cursed with a taint that stole his strength and magic. In that state, no one would support him, and he would never be able to get past even just the outer defences by himself.

Kiritsugu had nevertheless travelled often to Germany over the years to see if there really was nothing that could be done, to look for opportunities that might present itself if he focused hard enough, but he had returned unsuccessful every time. The last few times he had even taken Shirou along for second opinions and an extra set of eyes, but the red-haired Magus hadn't seen any possibilities either.

Eventually, Kiritsugu's health had become too weak to allow him to travel anymore. His death had followed only months later. He died, having failed to retrieve his daughter from the clutches of those he knew would hurt and mistreat her for the rest of her life, which was fated to be cut short by the next Grail War.

Shirou, having seen his father's pain, had made that promise that one last evening, only seconds before his father had died. Next to the promise about becoming a hero, he had promised to save his sister. One could say the second naturally followed from the first, but it pretty much translated to prioritizing Illya above others to a certain extent.

For quite some time after his father's death, Shirou had been just as stuck as before, not seeing any way how he, a not-even-half-decent spellcaster without influence or friends, could ever manage to best a family like the Einzbern. Now however, that was quite different.

With the arrival of Mjolnir, many things had changed for the golden-eyed teen. Chiefly among those changes were Shirou's power and abilities. Both had increased exponentially and were still increasing even now. He did not know how he would rank against Enforcers or Executors, but based on his father's descriptions, he estimated he was at the equivalent of average rank now, if only because of his lack of experience.

Saving Illya from her unofficial imprisonment was not unfeasible or a distant goal anymore. In fact, the teen was pretty sure he could go to Germany this very moment, attack the castle once there, manage to get in relatively unharmed, and then succeed to get himself out of there as well.

When communicating and training with Mjolnir over the past two weeks, he had learned several things that he had not been aware of at all before.

One of the most convenient abilities for this particular mission was the magic-resistance he had apparently gained. He had first been made aware of this by Mjolnir, and when testing it, he had found that low-level spells and Bounded Fields indeed did not seem to influence or affect him, with higher level Magecraft being diminished in effect.

It was a toss-up whether that was caused by magic-resistance or by the fact that the spells he used during the experiment were solely his own, but he trusted Mjolnir in this and would assume it was because of the resistance.

While he was sure it wasn't high enough for him to completely ignore every Bounded Field surrounding the Einzbern-castle, ('for now', Mjolnir had told him), the diminishing effect would greatly help him against them anyway, as well as against the mysteries that the Homunculus-guards might possess and use against him.

Another skill that had momentarily stunned Shirou was one that perhaps shouldn't have surprised him at all, as it was one of the most basic skills the gods had possessed:

Authority. The ability to bend reality, to a certain extent, through sheer power of will. An ability that had been possessed by the gods of old and had been used by them to a great extent. Not very strange then that he, who was apparently becoming a god, would gain that skill.

Not that it was really useful yet. Though the mention of Shirou possessing the ability to use Authority might call forth great visions of him annihilating and erasing everything in his path with a mere thought, he could do barely anything at all with it at the moment.

When attempting to use the skill for the first time, it had taken an enormous amount of willpower just to light the match he had used for the experiment. He hadn't been sure how exactly he had made the tiny flame spring forth, but then again, the whole concept of Authority was making things happen against any laws of any kind, merely through willing it.

Maybe he would understand in the future, but it didn't really matter. He did wonder for a moment though whether the gods had understood their own power perfectly or if they had just been rolling with it like he was.

And then there was regeneration. When Shirou had finally been testing his durability to find the limit, he had eventually managed to wound himself with a knife that he had imbued with both prana and the mysterious power.

The knife had ended up piercing the skin on his upper arm, precisely where he had aimed. However, despite the aforementioned imbuing and him using all of his not-inconsiderable strength in the blow, he had ended up making no more than a small cut in his skin. Only a few drops of blood had spilled from it, and the muscle beneath it hadn't been impaired in its movements at all.

He had fully expected Avalon would then take care of the cut, as the sheath had started humming when it had detected the wound. But before it could even start with mending the cut, the wound had suddenly closed already, far faster than it should have if it had been Avalon that had healed him.

Yes, he just said Avalon, for the sheath of king Arthur was still inside of him and still very much active, or at least as active as it could be for someone who was not King Arthur herself. It had been there ever since Kiritsugu had saved him from the fire, supporting and healing him, thereby assuring him he had been following the right path so far.

The coming of Mjolnir had not changed anything about that. The hammer and the sheath did not seem to have any problems at all with each other's presence, instead striking up a friendly relationship, with neither tool hindering the other. Indeed, they even seemed to support the other as much as they could.

It was good to know the important weapons in his life were getting along well with each other. Not that he always understood what was going on though. Mjolnir for some reason had seemed to laugh slightly when it had spotted Avalon for the first time, but had refused to give a concrete reason for its amusement, something about 'Arturia as well'.

So yes, Avalon had been very helpful to him. It was a mystical weapon forged by the fairies after all, capable of healing even the most grievous of wounds. Now though, it seemed that particular function might not be all that necessary anymore.

A quick inquiry to Mjolnir had confirmed he did in fact have a natural healing factor and regenerative abilities now, even if he hadn't had Avalon inside of him. A discovery that had both gladdened and concerned him.

Gladdened because it was yet another boon for him and his ambition to save everyone. It would not only help him save Illya, it would also be of use when fighting evil, especially in the Moonlit World, which was probably the only place where Shirou could still be hurt.

It concerned him too however, because the only other beings with natural, powerful healing factors that were 'alive' and present today were the Dead Apostles, Demons, Types, and other generally unpleasant species. Shirou did not want to be associated with them in any way if he could help it. Mjolnir had assured him though that the Curse of the Reversal of Time, or whatever other method the aforementioned beings used to heal, was not comparable with his manner of regenerating at all, so he had let it lie, for now.

That didn't mean he would discard Avalon of course. As said before, it was a mystical and mythical sheath with great historic and practical value, that was still an EX-ranked Noble Phantasm. He could still use it to save others, or heal himself if the wounds were particularly grievous, not to mention that it still helped him remain on the right path by virtue of being the manifestation of the Everdistant Utopia.

But back to Illya now. His magic-resistance, Authority, and regenerative ability coupled with his already known powers, including but not limited to super strength, crazy durability, super speed, high aptitude for every kind of Runes and ever-increasing prana reserves, would make invading the Einzbern-castle… well, not actually easy, but certainly doable.

The problem was as such no longer simply reaching and entering the castle, but rather the aftermath of him breaking and entering. That was in fact the part he was quite sure he _couldn't_ deal with at the moment.

It wasn't so much convincing Illya to go with him, as according to their father, she hated it there with a passion, but it was more that the prospect of having to escape successfully with a far more vulnerable person with him seemed daunting. One mistake on his part could cost his sister her life.

And even if he took Illya, and possible friends even, out of there, it wasn't like the Einzbern were going to lie down and give up as soon as they were gone. The family was old, rich and influential. At their call, a worldwide search would instantly be initiated, both from the mundane world and the Moonlit World.

And though he might even succeed at keeping himself and his sister hidden, he wasn't nearly sure enough of that to confidently go and retrieve Illya now. With possibilities like tracking spells, scrying and who-knows-what-more, Shirou had better make sure first his house was an invisible and invincible fortress before attempting anything, especially since his father, and by default, Shirou himself, would be prime suspects. Enforcers would be knocking on his door the very next day, as he hadn't exactly hidden himself very well, attending school and work with his normal name and so on.

It didn't help Fuyuki-City would be one of the first places they would visit and investigate, as it was in fact highly likely he, as kidnapper, would go there. If he were a rival Magus, he would only kidnap Illya to achieve something with the Holy Grail, for which he had to go to Fuyuki. If he was Emiya Kiritsugu or an accomplice of said man, the best trail they could follow would still start in Fuyuki. Everything kept coming back to Fuyuki.

All in all, saving his sister right away would be practically impossible to pull off. He would need to increase his power, which was already not inconsiderate, a lot more if he wanted to complete even just the first part of the big rescue, while for the second part, actually keeping Illya with him and also staying under the radar, raw power would be largely useless. He would need different kinds of power for that, power he might need to start obtaining soon…

The golden-eyed god was roused from his introspections by an alarm going off. Not a normal, everyday, electronic alarm though, as no one was breaking into his house and no fire had been started, but instead one coming from a Runic array drawn on a piece of paper that was hanging on the wall.

Shirou grinned at the sight, as he had been waiting quite a while for the alarm to sound now. It indicated that the number of people in the police station had finally dropped low enough for him to infiltrate it, with close to a full hundred percent certainty of completing his objective in there and then not getting caught while escaping.

The Runic array he had used for that alarm had been a very complicated one. If Shirou had stuck only to his books and the teachings of his father, he would never have succeeded in finding the necessary Runes, let alone successfully combining and then actually drawing them.

The golden-eyed hero however had not stuck to just those lessons and books possessing little information. Instead, he had actively been doing research to put together an array that would be useful in the situation he was in.

At first, he'd had no idea on how to accomplish such a thing, but then, one afternoon, the solution had hit him like a train. He had to admit though that it was not an elegant solution, and any Magus worth his or her salt would have scoffed at the very notion, if they did not just try to kill him outright. But the inelegance was to be expected, the idea came from his father after all.

Kiritsugu had always been an unusual magus, or magecraft-user rather. Instead of just sticking to Thaumaturgy and its uses, as a proper magus should do, he had liberally made use of all kinds of electronics and other modern tools. Things as bombs, cars, telephones and later mobiles, and of course computers when those had become mainstream.

It had served the man very well over the course of his career, so when he had started training Shirou, he had made sure to throw in some basic and less basic knowledge of modern applications too. Really, the nobles of the Clocktower would tear out their hair in consternation and outrage if they ever heard of it, but Shirou was a person who knew his way around in the modern times.

And it was with his laptop that he had started gathering information about Runes. The internet was truly an ingenious invention, with all that knowledge and information about more subjects than one could possibly imagine stored up in there, free for everyone to access. It had even gotten to the point some people had put a rune-translator-site on the internet, for those interested in the tongues of Old Norway and Denmark.

Thanks to this site, as well as a few other similar ones, Shirou had been able to slap together an array that seemed adequate, but probably wasn't at all functional, let alone fit for the purpose Shirou had built it for. But that was okay, the red-haired Magus had not expected to get it right on the first try, he would just have to keep trying until he got it correct.

But one time apparently was all that was needed, as his attempt at crafting the array had turned out to be good enough for Mjolnir to consider it knowledge gained. When Shirou had been about to throw the array in the trash, deeming it a failed try, and start anew, the hammer had suddenly given Shirou the perfect array for spying on the police station, better than he could have made even with the best of tomes and teachers.

It had been very startling for the teen to receive the array out of the blue, but, when he thought back on Mjolnir's condition for giving out Runes, he realized it wasn't all that strange. Mjolnir had promised him more Runes if Shirou worked hard to further his own education as well, and apparently, he had done so sufficiently for the hammer to hand him more knowledge.

Casting the matching array over the police station had been simple after that, as he merely had to stand some distance away from the building and then use Mjolnir to draw the Runes in the air aimed at the building in question, after which the magic went into that building and became connected with the same array drawn on a piece of paper that was in Shirou's possession.

And now that piece of paper was sounding the alarm and it was time to go.

* * *

Cautiously eying the police station in front of him, Shirou went over the floorplans of the building one last time, making sure to memorize it as well as possible. He had obtained those plans through a liberal application of both hacking and hypnotising government officials at the town hall, so he knew they were valid.

It was not something he was proud of, but it had to be done. He really had to get into the station after all, since if he didn't, the Magi he was hunting now would slip away again, continuing their immoral and cruel work.

Shirou himself had actually never been inside the station before, as there had never been any need to. His father and he had always been capable of fixing their own problems, for as far as they'd had any. He hadn't dared to visit the building either in the past weeks, ever since obtaining Mjolnir, as someone might be able to connect the teenage boy visiting the police station without a reason to the vigilante breaking in sometime later. Not that he was planning on being seen or caught or anything.

And even if he would be seen once in the upcoming mission, the chance of someone connecting the mysterious and unknown vigilante with the teenage boy Emiya Shirou was practically zero, as the police probably didn't have a single accurate description of him as a vigilante or as normal teenager and as such couldn't connect the two to each other. Still, it always paid to be cautious, even when it seemed unneeded. It was how his dad had been able to stay alive for so long in his line of work after all.

Tonight, his opportunity to break into the police station had arrived at last and Shirou was planning to capitalize on it. For who knew how long it would be until another opportunity presented itself so readily.

This was the first night in quite a while that the cells in the station were relatively empty. Over the past few weeks, the great number of criminals that Shirou had delivered to the police had kept the station completely crowded with criminals in every closet and cell, which was an inconvenience to the police, but also to Shirou himself. It made it extraordinarily difficult for him to get in and interrogate just one of them unnoticed by anyone else.

He had almost resigned himself to just going in and winging it, when many of the criminals previously present in the station had suddenly been transferred to real prisons outside of Fuyuki-City.

Some quick research on Shirou's part had revealed that many of the trails had finally been finished, which resulted in many crooks now well and truly going behind bars.

It may have been a problem for the red-haired Magus if all of the criminals smelling of magic had been included in the group leaving the station, but the smell of Thaumaturgy coming from the building in front of him was still strong, which made Shirou conclude that there were enough people left for him.

He expected that he'd need to question at least three, preferably more, of the thugs to get a good estimate of the reach of the whole clandestine operation, so that was what he had roughly planned for.

He was fairly certain he would be able to execute his plan, but he intended to run immediately should something go awry. His opponents today were largely good people after all, and he couldn't very well fight them when they were only doing their duty.

After one last look on the map of the building, Shirou put away the plans and grabbed Mjolnir from the place where he had put it down earlier. This would not be an easy mission, far more difficult than his other outings in fact.

He absolutely had to avoid being seen, but he couldn't fry the circuits in the station; he had to interrogate the criminals, but he needed to keep them relatively silent as well; he needed to avoid the cops, but he couldn't take them down.

He would have to be very careful and delicate while executing this plan, mistakes could be, well, not fatal, but certainly very inconvenient and potentially damaging if the police managed to get too much of a description of him.

Fortunately, he possessed a little skill that would make spotting him far more difficult, at least when he was approaching the building from the outside. The weather-control he had gotten from the divine tool in his hand wasn't just limited to storms after all.

Shirou raised Mjolnir into the air, channelling power through it and calling upon the mist and the fog to rise throughout the city. And as he was beckoning, the white mist did indeed come forth, spreading through the streets around the golden-eyed god and gathering extra thickly around the station.

Shirou launched himself with a powerful jump. He only had to find the correct place to land now, but it wasn't like there weren't many options available. It was a rather large building after all, with multiple floors and plenty of surface on every floor, plenty of windows too. If the number of people in there was small, which he had already confirmed, then he should be able to sneak around without too much trouble.

He eventually arrived before one of the windows of the seventh floor, which happened to be the highest floor, as he had deemed it wiser to start at the top and make his way down from there. The lower levels were always heavily guarded, he had noticed, but the security on the higher floors was a lot laxer, enabling him to enter without fuss.

He did have to 'fool' a camera with a small application of the mysterious power though, practically looping the footage by messing with the electric signals. It was very delicate, and considering the guards were only really watching the camera aimed at the front door, they would easily miss it.

It might seem very foolish and lazy of the police to not constantly watch all footage with care and scrutiny, but really, who had the time to watch boring images all day long in which nothing ever happened? Not the officers of Fuyuki-City, that was for sure.

It was exactly that one flaw in the system that allowed Shirou to enter the station without sounding any alarms or being noticed by anyone.

The lock on the window was opened by reinforcing it until it soundlessly broke, allowing Shirou to climb into the empty room behind the window. Not sticking around to take a closer look at the room itself, the red-haired magus opened the door leading to the hall at once and walked to the stairs to get to the cell-blocks, taking care to 'fool' any camera he came across before it could catch sight of him.

Naturally, it would have been impossible for any normal person to walk through a police station like that without alerting the officers, detectives, and all the other personnel to his presence. Luckily, Shirou was not a normal person.

Taking care to give off a subtle vibe that suggested looking away from him, a skill that was derived from hypnosis, Shirou managed to get one floor lower without incident, as the aura that surrounded him compelled people to not pay attention to the place that he was present in at the moment.

As he did not make the vibe very powerful for fear of causing holes in memories which couldn't be explained away and would leave behind suspicious people, it wouldn't work all that well on strong-minded people, but there was a shortage of those in the Fuyuki-police department anyway. It was actually the first time he was somewhat thankful that the law-enforcement agency in Fuyuki had been filled by the Church and the Magus Association with weak-minded individuals, for that greatly helped him here in this situation.

He had to make it to the third floor in order to get to the holding cells, and he was currently on the sixth, so there were three floors left for him to descend, with either the stairs or an elevator as options. The stairs were of course the most open place for him to walk, without any cover at all, but he did not dare take the elevator, as those were even worse, so the stairs it was. He could only hope he wouldn't encounter too many people.

While walking down those stairs, he did unfortunately come across some people on his way, but applying a bit of fast hypnosis before they could properly comprehend what they saw solved that issue efficiently and without too much fuss.

He stopped when at the fourth floor though. Looking down at the last set of stairs he had to take, Shirou took a deep breath to calm his nerves. This would be the hardest part of the entire mission, as he would have to enter one of the busiest rooms of the building if he wanted to get to the cell-block. The central detective area, where all detectives had their desks and shared information about their cases with each other.

He would have to cross that room somehow, and he would have to pull it off correctly from the start until the end, lest he wouldn't get the same opportunity for months after this. If he was seen now, the police would tighten security to the point that the only way in would be through either fighting or a great amount of mind-magics. Shirou would rather avoid those options if at all possible.

Nodding once to himself, the red-haired Magus made his way down, breathing in deeply and preparing himself for the stealthy trip through the area.

Then he rounded the first corner…

And came face to face with an officer who was just ascending the stairs.

Said officer had just been in the middle of yawning when he noticed the hero standing in front of him. Judging from the widening eyes and the mouth that remained opened, now in preparation for a scream, he had not been fooled or influenced all that much by Shirou's vibe.

Before he could get any sound out of his throat however, Shirou promptly grabbed him at said throat, cutting of any yells. The red-haired Magus then forced eye-contact between them, and immediately hypnotized the man.

" **You will be silent and follow my commands."** Shirou whispered, his voice echoing menacingly as the magic reverberated in it.

The officer ceased his struggles in Shirou's hold at once after Shirou's words took hold of him, and the golden-eyed teen let the man down again, allowing him to breathe freely once more.

After the officer had regained his breath, Shirou decided he might as well profit from this development as much as he could.

 **"How many people are present on this floor right now?"** He thus questioned. **"And how many can you lure or direct away?"**

"I don't know the exact numbers." The man replied, seeming completely calm and ordinary to the outside world, though he was firmly in Shirou's mental grasp now. "I can tell you it is less busy than normal though, as many officers and detectives had to work overtime during the last weeks because of all the criminals who had been arrested.

"Now many of them have gone home to take a well-deserved rest, with the largest part of the criminals shipped off to prison and all that. Even Osaki and Yomaura, those holier-than-thou show-offs have gone home for today. Heh, guess that proves they are just humans, like the rest of us."

Shirou did not miss the implications of that last statement. Taiga had already told him about Osaki Koyo and Yomaura Taya. It would seem their zeal did not endear them to their colleagues.

But that was a matter he could ponder and potentially profit from later. For now, his focus should be on the current mission. It was almost a godsend for him that the majority of the people had gone home for the day, as that would make everything a lot easier. Lots of things had been going rather easy for him these past weeks now that he thought about it.

He had originally planned to ambush and hypnotize a few people, take the uniform from one of them, and then walk with the rest in a group towards the cells so he could interrogate the criminals there, but that did not seem to be needed anymore. Ordering the man to follow him for now, Shirou continued his way down to the third floor. Once they arrived at the door of the staircase, he halted again.

" **Open this door and hold it open of a while. Let me look into the room behind it."** He ordered the officer who had obediently trudged after him. And just as obediently, the man moved to do what he had been ordered to do and opened to door, holding it open for a few moments.

Shirou, who had retreated into the shadows present in the darkish staircase in order to remain unseen, keenly observed the central room of the floor quickly, taking note of the people present, as well as the halls and doors leading to other smaller rooms. A relieved smile came to his lips when he saw that there were only six people present, at least as far as he could see.

Signing to the man to close the door once more, Shirou took the plans of the building out again, quickly looking over the outlining of the third floor in a last check-up to make sure everything would go perfectly.

As said, the room behind the door was the central detective-area, laid smack-down in the middle of the floor. The cell-blocks were located to left of it, from Shirou's current perspective, and to the right, there was the office of the captain of the detectives, the highest ranked person in the building. Left it was.

Turning back to his temporary accomplice, the golden-eyed hero decided to have him scout the way, just to be certain nothing would ruin the mission now that he was so close to his end goal: **"Now, go to the cell-blocks and look for any and every person present there who isn't a locked-up criminal, remember them well, for I want you to come back and report to me after you are done."** He commanded.

The officer nodded, before walking through the door to get to his destination, while Shirou slunk back into the shadows to hide himself. It did grate him somewhat that he had to hypnotize and use a practically innocent man like this, but the officer wouldn't be hurt by being hypnotized, and it was the most peaceful and painless option available to Shirou, so he carried on.

A few minutes later, the man came back, reporting that there was only one detective still present in the cell-block at the moment, who was currently questioning one of the criminals that were still here.

That was excellent news. The son of the Magus Killer would have to hypnotize that detective as well then, to ensure there would be no problems, but that made things even easier. That person, along with the officer next to him, could stand guard for him while he did his interrogating.

" **Excellent work. But we aren't done."** Shirou then said, giving his next orders to his side-kick. **"I want you to walk into the room, and 'accidentally' turn off the lights. Make sure to apologize profusely but keep them off long enough for me to slip by unnoticed. After that, follow me again."**

The man frowned at that. "Nobody can shut down all of the lights in a large area at once by himself, that is impossible. For safety-purposes, the light-switches that connect to different lamps in the room are placed quite far away from each other. I can however darken only the part between here and the cell-block if you want?"

Nodding to show his agreement with the new plan of action, the golden-eyed Magus got into position. The officer, whose name was Mino Masuhiro apparently, once again opened the door to walk into the room. Only a minute later, shocked cries suddenly sounded.

Opening the door himself, Shirou noticed that it was indeed dark in the part he needed to cross. With his enhanced speed, he covered the distance in nary a second, and entered the cell-blocks, where he waited for a few moments, not moving a muscle.

When no alarms were raised, and Mino walked through the door to join him again after a minute, Shirou relaxed slightly. Another part of the plan completed, and with significantly less effort than he had expected when planning.

After requesting Mino to lead him to the one detective that was currently present, Shirou followed his impromptu side-kick deeper into the cell-block.

When they arrived at the room that held the detective and also the criminal at the moment, Shirou thanked his lucky stars. This particular criminal was one that smelled like magic.

"If you're going in," Mino suddenly started, a faint note of hope in his voice that surprised Shirou to hear. "Then can you perhaps do something about that guy in there, Kurata Shojiro?"

Forget being surprised about the tone of voice, that entire question was surprising, as well as the fact that it was even asked in the first place. The fact that the man had asked a question while being under hypnosis was astounding, as that should not have happened. People under hypnosis were supposed to be in a trance in which they could only follow orders.

Well, that was something for later, for now, he needed to complete his mission, and maybe humour a request, if there was a very good reason for him to do so at least.

 **"Why?"** Shirou asked, somewhat harsher than intended. **"Do you need him silenced?"** If it turned out that Mino was corrupt, and wanted Shirou to silence someone who could potentially oust him, then Mino would wake up the coming morning with an enormous headache and an irrepressible urge to confess his misdeeds to the other officers.

Being hypnotized, Mino was not bothered in the slightest by Shirou's tone, and continued with his request unabated: "No, I don't have anything to do with him or any other criminal. I just want him gone because he really is one of the most difficult crooks we have ever arrested. We don't have much evidence on him, as he was picked up a few dozen yards away from the main hide-out of his gang. Now he insists on being an 'unfortunate victim of circumstances' who has nothing to do with the crimes that went on there.

"Nonsense of course, as we even have suspicions about him having been a part of another gang over in Ise, but it was enough to significantly delay his trial, as well as giving his lawyer something to work with. He might even walk if nothing happens, so again, can you do anything?"

"… **I'll see what I can do."** Shirou murmured, going over the options in his head. After a moment of contemplation, he settled on just planting a 'suggestion' in the man's mind to get him to confess his misdeeds, just like he did with Sawachika. If he truly was innocent, he would have nothing to tell the cops. If he wasn't, then the truth would come out and he would go behind bars, where he belonged.

Then, without losing another moment, the golden-eyed vigilante opened the door and strolled inside the small room.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"It's you, you fucking bastard."

Was said by the detective and the crook respectively as soon as they laid eyes on him. Before they could continue, Shirou looked both of them in the eyes and spoke:

" **Remain quiet please, and do exactly as I say."** And with that, he now had three people under his thrall.

The hero quickly ordered the detective as well as Mino to stand guard outside of the room and deter anyone from entering, and if that failed, to notify him of the approaching person at once.

After the two cops had left the room, Shirou turned his attention towards Kurata, who was still impassively staring at him, the hypnosis still in full effect. From what Shirou had heard when he had entered the room, the criminal somehow recognized him from somewhere.

Alright, it was probably more his outfit than Shirou himself that was recognizable to any of the apprehended criminals, but still, it was unexpected and definitely something he should ask about.

" **Where did you recognize me from?"** He thus asked first, deciding it was better to have that question answered right away, though he was confident he could take a reasonable guess at the answer.

"You are the one that knocked me out and called the police on me." The thug responded, confirming Shirou's main theory. "I was put on guard duty for the thousandth time, to look out specifically for you. I thought for sure you wouldn't show, but it seems I was wrong. You appeared and knocked me out so hard I had a headache for three days straight. It has been eating me up ever since that you were able to take me down so easily."

Raising an eyebrow, Shirou contemplated feeling guilty about that, before deciding that it wasn't worth it. The man was a confessed criminal after all. A very difficult one to hold down at that if Mino was to be believed.

Making eye-contact with the man in front of him again for maximum results, Shirou went for the man's whole story: **"Tell me everything about yourself, your criminal activities and all your accomplices. Include even the parts that might seem unimportant to you."**

And talk the man did. He told Shirou a lot, how he, Kurata, had landed in a criminal life from the very beginning of puberty, how the life of a thug had agreed with him, and how he and his friends, whose names Shirou did not recognize, had been relatively successful at first with their little gang.

"And then that guy came in, suddenly promising us all kinds of things." Kurata then grumbled, making Shirou lean slightly forward in anticipation. That kind of phrasing was also how the gang leader had started his story of his contact with the Moonlit World two weeks back.

"And he offered to pay us big for any person we could abduct and bring to him without it causing too much fuss, ya know? So we did, and we got payed. With that money and through a few happy coincidences, we quickly landed at the top of the food chain in our city, which is named Ise by the way, don't know if you've ever heard of it."

Very similar to the gang-leader indeed. The rest of the man's story was basically the same as the story Sawachika had told him; They had lived the good life for some years, but had everything fall apart around them when the police and rival gangs suddenly cracked down on them with a vengeance, without Kurata knowing how that could have possibly transpired.

The only differences were that Kurata here had no idea how the downfall could have happened, and as such did not bear any grudges against mysterious persons, and also that he was not actively involved with the human trafficking but had left it to his friends and later to his stooges, unlike Sawachika, who had done all of the horrid 'transactions' himself.

As such, Kurata could tell him even less about the Magi than the gang leader had. It was still interesting to hear however, when Shirou had removed the blocks in the man's memories, that his contact had been a blonde-haired, Caucasian woman, instead of a black-haired Southern-European man. That was everything Kurata could tell him though.

Far from being deterred by the lack of information, Shirou reapplied the memory-blocks, also then adding his own to prevent the man from remembering anything. He made sure too to send a small suggestion into the man's mind to confess to his misdeeds later.

Leaving Kurata sitting drowsily at the table, Shirou walked out of the interrogation room, meeting up once more with Mino and the elder detective. After commanding them to take him to more criminals, Shirou took the time to very carefully alter and wipe their memories in such a way that they would not only fail to remember both him and their own suspicious actions later, but also would not have any missing parts in their memory.

The detective would only remember talking with Kurata for hours on end, until said criminal suddenly started confessing as if Satan himself was making him do so, while Mino would only remember being restless, accidentally turning of the lights once, and eventually assisting the elder detective with the questioning of Kurata.

One might question why Shirou was doing such a thing now already, instead of at the very end of the mission, but that was because Shirou knew he might be forced to flee at any moment now and he wanted to have as much of the evidence as possible erased right away, as he would not have the time for it when fleeing the building.

As they had been ordered to do, Mino and the elder detective then brought him to other cells containing criminals. Most of them did not smell of magic, so Shirou walked past them, confident they would go behind bars in the near future. Whenever he did smell something though, and really, the smell of magic was unmistakable to someone like him, he went into the room to quickly question the crook inside.

That happened a grand total of three more times after Kurata, making the total number of criminals interrogated rack up to five if one included Sawachika. And every time, the general gist of the story told to Shirou was the same:

A band of relatively successful but small-time criminals with a lot of ambition would suddenly be visited by a mysterious stranger, completely out of the blue. The stranger then offered money in exchange for services, somehow always managing to convince all members of the gang to accept his or her offer, even when that went against the characters of some of them.

Those services were always the same too: to abduct people who would not be missed and sell them to their 'benefactor'. The gang members, now working for the magus, would find themselves rising to the top fast, through both money from the mysterious stranger and, more notably, through a series of happy 'coincidences' that were most likely orchestrated by the magus/magi.

After a while of being at the top though, the gang would inevitably fall hard when rival gangs and the police would suddenly make major headway in opposing the formerly so powerful gang. Most of the members would be scattered and arrested, and the few escapers would flee to Fuyuki-City, where he had been taking them down during the past month or so, spelling the definite end of each of the gangs.

It happened in Hikone and in Ise, and in Inuyama, Urayasu, and Iwakuni. Whoever those Magi were, Shirou had to admit they knew what they were doing, as their general plan went off without a hitch every time as far as he could determine. Very impressive.

It was a very smart plan too. The mundane authorities practically had no chance of ever finding, let alone arresting them, while the Magus Association did not know and would not care even if they did. It was basically up to the golden-eyed hero alone to catch them.

One thing he had been curious about however was why the crooks had chosen Fuyuki as their destination, when some of their home-cities were very far away, not to mention that every single one of them said that Fuyuki was so inhabitable for them because of the Yakuza.

The criminals had had no answer for him when he asked, except that 'it had felt right', which only indicated the use of even more hypnosis, though the purpose of sending all those criminals to his city remained yet another mystery for the red-haired hero.

He hadn't had any more questions and there weren't any more criminals smelling of magic, so that concluded his mission, his work in the police station was done for now. All that remained was getting out unnoticed. And as it was unlikely many cameras were pointed upwards to the widows, he should be able to fly out of there without being seen by anyone, as usual.

And even if there were any cameras, the heavy fog he had summoned before entering the building would hide him from sight, from both cameras and any possible eyes that were aimed upwards for some reason. It was also convenient the best detectives of the entire force had gone home already, lowering his chances of being spotted even more.

Shirou politely said his goodbyes to the men who had led him around for the evening. It was no more than decent to do so, as they had worked very hard to make thing easier for him, even if it hadn't been entirely voluntarily.

After that, he walked up to the nearest window without bars, opened it, and flew away with the speed of a falcon, disappearing from the sight of any prying eyes that might have been looking in seconds at most.

But Shirou had been lucky that day, as no prying eyes had actually been looking. His break-in had gone completely and utterly unnoticed.

As he landed in his backyard a few minutes later, the teen was cautiously optimistic with the information he had obtained.

It was fortunate that four of the five cities mentioned in his interrogations were close enough for him to go there, do his thing, and leave within the span of one night. Only Hikone, the home city of Sawachika the gang leader, was too far away for him to comfortably reach during the eight to ten hours he normally had at his disposal between Sakura leaving his house in the evening and her returning the next morning.

In fact, even with him flying at top-speed, he would need most of the night just to get there in the first place. Never mind doing what needed to be done and then also flying back.

Just the city where he actually had the most leads, by virtue of him knowing the safe-houses and the drop-off-points where the abducted people had been brought to, turned out to be the one place he couldn't very well visit at all. He couldn't afford not to investigate Hikone, but it would be difficult.

While musing over this obstacle in his path that could not be overcome by hitting it hard enough, Shirou went into his shed to put away his vigilante disguise, taking care to hide his mask, and walked back into the main building of the estate after that.

A glance on the clock revealed that it was very late, even later than he would normally return. He might even actually have to be cautious not to oversleep in the morning, something that hadn't been necessary even once after Mjolnir had arrived.

Shirou had never had much need for long nights of sleep, and the hammer had reduced the need even more. Something Shirou was quite happy with, as it allowed him to keep up with his busy schedule without looking like a zombie all the time.

Sakura was probably happy with that as well, as she didn't have to prepare breakfast anymore when he overslept. It seemed however that she might have to do so tomorrow. It was grating for Shirou a bit to be a less-than-stellar host, but he was really too tired to truly worry about it.

With that in mind, the golden-eyed Magus went to bed, knowing he'd have to get up again in less than two hours, and also knowing that he would not awake by himself, but that he would be awoken tomorrow by a certain plum-haired girl.

Certainly not the worst way to wake up if you asked Shirou. In fact, it was one of the best.

* * *

The sunrise was stunning to behold, the birds were singing merrily, the dew on the grass leaves shone with light, the sky lighting up in even more colours then the aforementioned dew.

Though Sakura was never a person who cared much about any of that, she had to admit nature was really trying to show off today. Even though she'd had another 'training session' the night before, the gorgeous appearance of the world around her was almost enough to make her forget about it, especially when remembering who she was going to see.

For some it might grow old to see the same person day in, day out. They might not understand her almost fanatical devotion to someone who was not related to her and not in a relationship with her, but those people had not lived the life of Matou Sakura. Her life had been worth nothing before her Senpai had come along, and every moment spend in his absence reminded her sharply of that fact.

And sure, it had been getting better lately, with Ayako-san and maybe even Issei-san, but her Senpai would always have a special place in her heart.

Entering the Emiya-estate, which seemed to shine even brighter in the light than it did normally, Sakura thought back on the last weeks, as they been very different compared to the years before.

She had known her Senpai for a few years by now, and in all that time, he had seemed… Sad? Yes, permanently sad was probably the best description. He almost never laughed, barely smiled, and did not seem to enjoy anything at all, unless his actions benefitted other people. He had been sad, and that had made her sad as well.

Lately though, her Senpai had improved. He suddenly laughed more, truly smiled during random moments like a normal person, he even made new friends in Ayako, and unfortunately, her brother as well.

Grimacing, Sakura hoped her Senpai would be a good influence on her Nii-san, though she honestly doubted it. Her brother was very much set in his ways through the malicious whispering of her grandfather and the pressure of being, pardon her language, a complete failure in a family of Magi who had placed a lot of hope in him before he had even been born.

Shinji wasn't the only problem though. It had also upset her a bit at first that Ayako-san had become a friend of her Senpai. The brown-haired girl had clearly been attracted to him, however slightly it was for now, and the plum-haired girl had not liked the competition.

After some thinking though, and after getting over the initial reaction of possessiveness, Sakura once more remembered that she was too tainted for her Senpai. She was unworthy of a fantastic person like him, and Ayako was not a bad person at all, to the contrary. She was a very good match for Shirou if they ever decided to pursue a relationship.

Sakura genuinely liked the exuberant girl, who had been a good friend to her. If it was Ayako who would get together with Senpai, Sakura wouldn't have to fear being pushed out of the picture, which frankly played a big part in her approval of the brown-haired girl as well.

But she shouldn't plan out her Senpai's love-life for him, he was probably capable enough of that himself. She would just stand next to him for as long as possible and smile as brightly as she could. For him, she would do that. She would do everything for him.

Walking into the main building of the estate, Sakura's head perked up in shock as she took in the sight of the empty kitchen before her. Her crush was nowhere in sight! That was the first time in weeks that he wasn't already working on breakfast before she had arrived, as he hadn't overslept since the beginning of the holidays.

There was no denying however that the kitchen was empty now.

That had to mean he was still sleeping.

Sakura smiled. Finally, she once more had a chance to make breakfast for her favourite person in the world. Those chances had been so very rare in the past years and even plain non-existent in the past weeks. And that was really a shame, because she loved cooking for him.

Happily clapping her hands, Sakura scurried to the kitchen and started taking out pots and pans, as well as the food of today. Humming a merry tune, another sign of her own improvement, as she wouldn't have thought of doing so only half-a-year ago, she cut the vegetables and put the meat in the pan.

When everything was progressing nicely, and she had some time free while the food was on the stove, it was just about time to wake up the owner of the house. Sakura went up to her Senpai's bedroom, having decided to check there first. If he wasn't present in said room, she would try the shed.

It wasn't needed to go to the shed though, as she found the golden-eyed teen easily enough. Just normally in his room, laying on his futon. It was better though than finding him in the shed on the floor, as sometimes happened when he continued tinkering too long.

Sakura opened the door of his room fully and stepped inside, intending to shake him awake. Half-way to his side though, she stopped moving, looking intently at his face.

Her Senpai was laying on his futon, looking completely peaceful and relaxed. He had always been handsome in her eyes, (and the eyes of many others of course), but like this, it was even more accentuated. His face was set in a calm expression, while he laid on his back, body still and relaxed.

A minute past like this, with Sakura staring at her crush more fixedly than ever before. Was it just her, or had he actually become more handsome all of a sudden?

It had to be just her, right? It probably wasn't possible for him to get more handsome now when he already was so handsome in general.

She began breathing a bit more heavily, hands grasping at her sides as if trying to grab something. Standing so close to her Senpai, the reaffirmation of her crush on him hit her like a truck. Her mind played back all the high-lights of their relationship until now for some reason, with her body refusing to move an inch, unless it was to get closer to him.

And then, almost involuntarily, though she did not truly try to stop herself, she took a step in his direction, and then another step, and another. She eventually made it to his side like that, kneeling next to him and bowing her head down, eyes fixed on his lips. The blush on her face increasing until her face resembled a tomato.

Her mind was empty, her focus only on what was before her. Had Sakura been in a normal mindset, she would have fantasized about this, but never actually done it. For some reason though, she couldn't stop herself from bowing her head even lower and lower.

And then she kissed him.

It was only a chaste kiss, nothing more than pressing her own lips to his for the slightest of moments, but it was enough to make her knees weak and make butterflies flap around in her stomach. Even that small sign of affection was amazing…

…?

She shot up, hand smacking against her own lips as the shock at her own audaciousness hit her. She stumbled a few steps backwards before she regained her balance, the scene playing over and over in her mind.

She had just kissed her Senpai!

What on Earth had possessed her to do that? She wasn't some creep that would kiss people while they were sleeping, that was incredibly inappropriate.

' _But you liked it.'_ A small, treacherous part of her mind whispered. _'Admit it, that felt really nice.'_

Well, yes, but that was not important at the moment. She couldn't just take advantage of her crush in his sleep! What if he had woken up when she had her head above his? What would he have thought of her? He would have thought her a creep and a pervert, that's what!

Rapidly shaking her head to dispel any memories of her first kiss, she quickly completed the task she came here to do, shaking her Sempai lightly.

"Wake up, Senpai." She said with forced calmness. "It is morning."

With a small grunt, he awoke, casting a quick look at her. He then gave a smile, which made her heart flutter in her chest even more. "Good morning to you then, Sakura-a-a-a." He said, interrupted by a large yawn that he covered with his hand. "Let me guess, I overslept, and you had to do all the work?"

He sounded so self-incriminating that the plum-haired girl's instincts to reassure him temporarily overwrote her embarrassment. "Like I said before, Senpai, it is not a problem. I am practically a free-loader here, so it is only right I do some work as well."

The look her Senpai then gave her showed he disagreed, but he didn't argue, instead smiling again. "Well, thank you very much then, Sakura." He said, standing up and placing a hand on her shoulder for a moment. "Truly, I am blessed to have a friend like you."

Well, that brought the memories of the kiss back right away. She squeaked, before stuttering a quick thank-you and fleeing back to the kitchen, hoping the embarrassment would have gone away by the time her Senpai would come downstairs.

It would not occur to her until later that the Crest-Worms in her body had not acted up even once during the entire episode.

In her haste to flee her Senpai's room though, she completely missed her red-haired crush pressing a finger against his lips, wondering about the strange, but not unpleasant tingling he felt there. He was also wondering what Mjolnir was so amused about.

In the meantime, Sakura had returned to the kitchen, where she continued cooking in an attempt to forget about what had just happened. To her great content, she managed to get her blush down in time before her Senpai joined her again, which was only minutes after she had run downstairs.

Without her needing to say a word, he started setting the table, preparing the dining room for the appearance of the Hungry Tiger.

The aforementioned Wild Beast showed up a few minutes later, when the food had been prepared and put on the table, ready for consumption. After a quick greeting and having received the permission to start eating from Shirou, Taiga happily dug in, her example followed by Shirou and Sakura a few seconds later.

For a while, the only sounds were those of eating, but after the hunger of the three teens, yes, three, they were all teens, if not in body then in spirit, had been satiated, the customary breakfast-talk began. This time, with a comment about the weather of all things.

"The weather has been really weird for these past days, hasn't it?" Fujimura-sensei suddenly declared, making Sakura look up from her meal. "I mean, with all these storms and everything appearing out of nowhere, and disappearing just as fast, not to mention the heavy fog of last night that came out of the blue. I do not like it, this could potentially injure someone. Maybe even me!"

That last part was said in such a whiny, theatrical voice Sakura could not supress a few giggles. Leave it to her sensei to say funny things like that about serious subjects. The plum-haired girl had noticed the same thing as the brown-haired woman, but as the storms seemed to make her grandfather nervous, she just wished they would not end any time soon.

"Ah yes, I have noticed them." Her Senpai said. A closer look at him, which brought back the accursed blush again, revealed that for some reason, a muscle below his eye seemed to be twitching. "They certainly make a ruckus, and then there is that vigilante too. Fuyuki-City has to deal with a lot of strange things these days, doesn't it."

"Ah, it is not that strange." Fujimura-sensei then said. "It was high time for someone to deal with the gangs, okay, though I admit a vigilante is in fact strange, but it is not unfeasible. And I guess the storms are just an effect of that Global Warming thing that's in the news so often these days."

"Wait!" Sakura interrupted her here, having not understood one of the words. "What's that Global Warming you speak of?"

Okay, sensei was now looking surprised at her, as if it was Sakura who was in the wrong by not knowing about this term, but at least her Senpai was smiling understandingly at her. She'd focus on her Senpai from now on. Stupid Sensei.

"Global Warming is the effect of the increased air pollution around the world, Sakura. Simply said, it's what happens when all of the pollution in the air prevents the warmth on the Earth from leaving into space, which results in higher average temperatures all over the planet." He explained. "This can have disastrous outcomes for the climate and indeed the weather patterns, often resulting in freakish occurrences such as the storms of the past weeks."

"Correct, Shirou." Fujimura-sensei then sighed on her other side. "I guess it's just Earth itself expressing its unhappiness with us in the form of nuisances. Can't really blame it, what with air pollution and all of the other kinds of pollution added to it."

"Heh heh, yeah." Sakura laughed, now feeling uncomfortable. Would it go over well with the other two if she explained that Mother Earth, Gaia, was in fact not limiting itself to nuisances in its quest to destroy humanity?

Probably not all that well, she decided. If she told them the truth, and by some miracle, they believed her, Fujimura-sensei would just have a panic-attack probably, as she was not the most stable and mature person Sakura knew.

Her Senpai however would probably just be motivated to fix the problems. He might even go out and try to fix the entire environment in order to appease Gaia. That did seem like something he would do.

Not that it would work of course. He would need to be some kind of god for that.

Not to mention that beings like Primate Murder would not take kindly to it at all.

"But how is it going with your family's business, Fuji-nee? Her Senpai then asked. Fujimura-sensei perked up at the question and answered Shirou's inquiry with the enthusiasm that the plum-haired girl had come to expect of her. Sakura, unseen by the other two present, sagged just a bit in her seat.

She had managed to avoid an awkward situation here, but in order for that to happen, she had to lie to and keep even more secrets from her two favourite persons in the entire world.

It was as grating as always that she couldn't tell them anything. Even though she was pretty sure it was for their own good, it still felt like she was betraying them by keeping silent. Would she ever be able to tell them? Or would she have to smile and wave for the rest of her life?

* * *

Footsteps echoed through a dark and deserted hall, which was only lit by torches every few metres, as a man walked through it at a swift pace, on his way to the well-lit room at the other side, where his companions would be waiting for him. They had much to discuss now, with the recent developments and happenings in Fuyuki-City.

Currently living in a secure fortress at the border of a city that was not Hikone, nor Ise, or even Inuyama, Urayasu, or Iwakuni, the man and his four companions thought themselves as secure as was possible, shielded against those that might pursue them and had pursued them in the past.

It had been this feeling of security that had caused them to behave so boldly as they had during the past years. Based on the fact that he had gotten an urgent message just now that called him to a meeting to discuss 'unforeseen events' in Fuyuki-City though, that might have been a mistake.

Not that the man knew exactly what was happening, but the message had made it clear that it was an emergency, something to do with the little project they all had in that accursed city.

Entering the room he had been summoned to, the man, Joseph Balefor, quickly swept his gaze around, frantically checking whether everyone was present in the room or not. They had to start as soon as they could after all, and could not afford to waste any time. To his great relief however, all where present now.

It was a very luxurious room that he had entered now, even to the standards of the rest of the castle, which was not exactly run-down or decrepit either. Expensive paintings hung all over the walls, with pieces of indiscernible modern art cluttered around on pedestals. A warm fire burned in the hearth, and five comfortable and no doubt expensive arm-chairs were set in a half-circle around it, so that the persons sitting in them would face each other fully at all times.

It was in those chairs that the man's companions were currently seated, each and every one of them clad in clothes that cost more than the average yearly salary of a Japanese man, with plenty of jewellery to finish the image.

Not that Balefor himself was poor of anything, rather he was rich too, though he was clad much more modestly at the moment, as he had just come from his workshop.

"Ah, Joseph." The oldest man present, a fine-looking gentleman with blonde hair, high cheekbones, and a face that was handsome for his age, said in a welcoming tone, his grey eyes containing nothing but mirth and joy. "Do come in, but close the door please, the cold is getting in."

The man who had spoken to Joseph was named Richard Burgon, the first and most experienced member of their little club, and not someone who Balefor would just ignore, especially not as he was in fact the youngest and newest member. Thus, he dutifully closed the door and took his place next to the hearth.

"Ahem, yes. Good of you to join us Joseph, we were just about to start." The woman on his right, Meire Palerna was her name, interrupted in a slightly mocking tone, leaning forward with an impatient look on her face.

She was quite a beautiful woman, and she knew it too. With her light-blonde hair, sharp face with a cute button-nose and full lips, and unmarred skin, she was quite often stared after on the streets whenever she went out.

"We are here to discuss the recent happenings in Fuyuki-City, right?" He asked, fairly confident that was indeed the case but still feeling it would be prudent to check. "That was what the Homunculus told me anyway when it came to me with your message."

"True, true." Burgon said, his smile still on his face. "I hope it was not too much of an interruption. You weren't working on anything too important I hope?"

Yes, he had in fact been working on something important.

He couldn't just say that though.

"No, don't worry." Balefor replied, waving his hand as if to brush away any possible mention of inconvenience. "It was not very important, and if it fails, we still have plenty of research subjects I could use to simply redo it. No problem at all."

"Alright! Enough idle prattle!" Allesandro Alva rudely interjected, his normally olive skin now red in agitation and anger, his handsome face set in an expression of impatient rage, his black hair in a state of complete disarray. "I myself do in fact have more important matters to attend to, so say your piece and say it quick, Burgon."

Alva's temper had always been short, as was typical of Southern European men if you asked Balefor, but the young researcher noticed it seemed extra short today. Not much of a surprise, the man had never been able to handle stress or unexpected developments very well.

"I would like to, but it was not me who called us all together, my friend." Burgon answered, putting the tips of his fingers together and giving a smile to the irate man sitting across from him. "For that, you need to look at young Oliver here."

Oliver Waudenstad, who had probably just heard his name being spoken, looked up from his papers with his beady eyes and creepy smile, his bald head shining in the light of the fire. Balefor had realized early on that the man, next to looking quite rat-like, was not entirely right in the head, but Waudenstad was intelligent, driven and meticulous, as well as trustworthy for now, so the youngest member of the cabal had gotten over the little man's strange quirks quickly enough.

"Hm, yes, thanks." Waudenstad muttered, his tongue coming out to wet his lips several times during the speaking of those three words. "Hm, it would seem that all of the criminals we send to Fuyuki-City have been taken in during several mass-arrests by the police, hm, yes?"

Balefor sank back into his chair, a hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. An action that was copied by the other four, he noticed. He had to admit they were being a little dramatic though. If this was the emergency, then there wasn't anything to really worry about.

Those criminals being arrested suddenly was, well, not very good, but it also wasn't catastrophically bad. It was certainly unexpected, as the police in the city of the Holy Grail War shouldn't have been so competent, but fate was a fickle thing.

Unless…

"Did the Second Owner of the territory finally realize there were dozens of criminals with traces of Thaumaturgy on them in her borders?" Palerna sneered, saying exactly what Balefor had in mind, her face the picture of haughty annoyance. "Because if that is the case, it certainly took her long enough. We send the first one to the city years ago."

Alva snorted, crossing his arms and assuming a look every bit as haughty as Palerna's. "It was to be expected. She's but a young, foolish girl without proper training in anything related to Thaumaturgy. Not a single relation to the Clocktower, no big discovery, not wealthy, nothing." He spat, apparently taking the girl's supposed ignorance and unimportance as a personal insult.

It was here Balefor decided to interject himself. "Be happy with that." He told an irate Alva and Palerna. "If she was smarter or more resourceful, she would never fall for our trap."

The two he had spoken to both cast a glance at him, before nodding in acceptance of his words.

"Listen to young Joseph." Burgon then laughed. "He speaks sense. If we want to succeed in our plot to get out hands on an excellent specimen that will not be missed by anyone of importance, it is needed for said specimen to be less than average in terms of intelligence and cunning."

"The fact remains however," Waudenstad interjected again, his eyes shifting to look at everyone in the room at least once, "that our little moles have been caught, without any interference of the little girl as far as I can tell."

"How then?" Hissed Palerna, her hackles now visibly rising again. Balefor shook his head at her loss of composure, and from the corner of his eye he saw Burgon and Alva do the same. Though in his humble opinion, Alva had little right to do so.

"Publicly, they say it was through the brave and unrelenting efforts of the efficient police-force." Waudenstad chittered, with a small tugging at his lips. His words were met with raised eyebrows from everyone in the room, making the tug grow out to a real smile, however small.

"I didn't believe it either." He giggled. "So, I did some digging, and I found out through one of my sources that the police weren't responsible after all for all of the successes. You can imagine my shock was profound, but it turned out it was an honest-to-god vigilante."

"A vigilante?" Balefor asked before he could stop himself. "What do you mean? A real vigilante? Who is it? Where did they came from? How did that happen?"

Vigilantes were from stories, comics maybe, not from real life. Or at least, not vigilantes who were apparently so effective at their chosen profession. They should have gotten a bullet through the skull right away in real life.

Waudenstad's smile fell here, and he looked back into his papers. After a while, his face emerged from them again, and with a sour look, he spoke once more:

"I have no idea."

Raised eyebrows all around once more.

"Tsch, it is not through any fault of my own. My spies and informants were not placed on the investigation, and the ones who are dealing with the case of the vigilante are two of those goody two shoes who are not for sale for anything I could offer them."

"Can't you do anything?" Alva asked, calmer than Balefor would have expected of the man. "Hypnotize them? Kidnap their family? Stage a break-in to get rid of them? Something drastic." Ah, of course. The prospect of senseless violence was enough to keep Alva interested and relatively calm, how predictable.

Waudenstad however already shook his head long before Alva was even finished with his inquiries. "That would attract to much attention." He countered. "If this vigilante is in fact a user of Thaumaturgy, as I am suspecting at the moment, such a move could cost us dearly in the long term, especially if they realize we are Magi as well."

"Are we sure Tohsaka is not the vigilante?" Burgon suddenly suggested, though he did not even sound remotely convinced of his own contribution to the conversation. "Because if she is, we could use that to our advantage, as it suggests a sense of justice greater than normal. That is a very exploitable flaw."

That last part may be true in general, but that first sentence? Balefor had to supress a laugh at that, something the others had to do as well, he noticed. Burgon, instead of being offended, took it in stride, smiling himself as well.

"No, of course not." He said in response to his own question. "A stupid little hedge-mage could never achieve such a thing, and I would like to think even Asians have too much pride in their own crafts to hunt down criminals themselves while playing a role as mundane vigilantes.

The question of what we will do about this remains though. We had been sending those criminals there in the hope it would draw the girl to us, but that plan seems to have failed."

Balefor doubted this was their last chance of obtaining the Tohsaka and her belongings, but this particular attempt at procuring a Magus with a fairly old lineage, a reasonable number of magic circuits, and a sizable crest had indeed failed now.

It had been a long shot anyway, sending mundane crooks with noticeable traces of Thaumaturgy on them to that twit's city in the hope she would notice. It had been good as trial-run though if nothing else. This attempt had failed, so they would simply have to try again, until they found a method that worked. It wasn't like they had a shortage of criminals in their employ after all.

"…Enough specimens?" Balefor was roused from his thoughts at the sound of Alva's yelling. A quick glance to his side revealed said man, and Palerna as well, to be up in arms again. Really, how those two had managed to successfully research Dead Apostles together for a number of years until the Clocktower had caught on, he would never know.

"We still have plenty of specimens." That was the curt reply from Waudenstad. "We have many gang leaders in our employ, and a steady influx of test-subjects. The storage is full of them, and it isn't likely we will really use all that many of them with only the five of us. Sure, we also sell large numbers, but we can cut the sales if need be."

"But what shall we do about Tohsaka?" Burgon now asked, his voice gaining a slight tinge of urgency. "This plan likely failed, but we can't give up after one try, young ones. Does anyone have a good idea?"

No one reacted. For a few moments, everyone was sunken in thought, pondering the question posed, until Burgon chuckled again and spoke up once more. "Just think on it for a bit, my young friends. And while you do so, do you not all have work to get back to?"

… That indeed reminded him of his own project that was waiting for him back at his workshop: finishing the next generation chimera for their castle's defences. He stood up, drawing the attention of the others towards him. "Was that all?" He inquired politely. "I actually still have my research to get back to, so…?"

Burgon cast a look at Waudenstad and, after seeing the little ratman nod, waved Balefor away, wishing him good luck.

Balefor rushed out of the room again with the same speed he had entered it with. Behind him, he could hear Burgon laugh about hasty youths, as well as telling the others to get back to work as well. Research and projects weren't going to do themselves after all.

Striding through the hall again, Balefor tried to calm his poor heart, which was frantically beating in his chest. It wasn't because of the exertion though, he was in a reasonably good condition if you asked him, rather it was because of something else.

For some reason, he had been feeling very nervous lately, as if someone, something, was watching him constantly, just waiting for an opportune moment to strike without mercy. It didn't help his dreams had been filled lately by a man with white clothes and a large grin on his face, making cut-throat gestures and silently laughing at him.

It was enough to drive him into a panic sometimes when he had just awoken. The man in his dreams was completely unknown to him, but sometimes his face shifted into the face of someone else, a face that reminded him too much of someone he knew very well. Someone who was no doubt hunting him down even now.

But there was nothing to worry about, right? The mundane forces couldn't find them in here, and the hedge-mages of Asia didn't have a much better chance. They were too stupid to catch someone brilliant like him, especially when he had joined a group like this.

And even his hunters in the Mage's Association, especially _him_ , would not be able to find him here. He was sure of it. There was just no way _he_ could find Balefor now. There was no reason to be this anxious.

* * *

Thousands of miles away, in a secluded room, filled with furniture, papers and unfinished projects, a man sat in silence, not saying a single word and not moving a muscle, despite the pen in his hand being poised for writing, hanging above a piece of paper with an unfinished text written on it.

He was supposed to be grading the tests of his students, who probably had all scored wonderfully again, as they always did with him.

For some reason though, he couldn't keep his attention on the task at hand tonight, and he didn't know why he could not. Grading papers of the first-year students was something he could do in his sleep normally.

He had considered that his lack of concentration might have something to do with the rare meeting he would have tomorrow with the esteemed elders of his family, during which they would snipe and scoff at him again for supposedly costing them their crest, but those meetings, or their words, had never bothered him. Not enough to make him restless like this.

Perhaps it had something to do with the lack of sleep he'd had in the past months then? Ever since Lord Balefor had been murdered by his rotten nephew, who had then stolen his crest as well, he hadn't been sleeping enough, instead spending his nights looking for clues as to where that damned Joseph could have fled to, as well as managing the efforts of the Enforcers with the same goal as he had.

Putting the pen down, the man rubbed his tired eyes, close to deciding to just let it lay, both the grading and the matter with Joseph, and go to bed now. Nothing could be achieved if he was in a mood like this.

Just as he was about to get up however to make for his personal room to get some rest, the door of his office opened, one of the Enforcers under him striding through it and to his desk with purpose and a confident gait.

Rising an eyebrow at the development, the man behind the desk did not say a word, instead remaining seated and ready to accept whatever message the man no doubt had for him.

"My Lord." The Enforcer said, giving a quick salute to his superior, but cutting right to the heart of the matter after the quick formality. "We have found a clue."

The lord behind the desk blinked once, his sleep-deprived mind not catching up at first, before he grinned widely, holding out a hand to accept the report held in the Enforcer's hands. It was immediately handed over to him.

Quickly flipping through the pages, the lord couldn't entirely hold back a smile. This was excellent, there wasn't just one clue, there were dozens. Enough to even determine the country that accursed murderer had fled to.

Soon he'd be able to avenge his respected colleague, with whom he had worked together in many instances. He only needed to go to…

The half-smile froze on his face, the widening eyes being the only indication of the shock coursing through the man. The report was slowly put down on the desk, after which the Enforcer excused himself, recognizing his employer had nothing more to say to him.

After making sure the other man was gone, the Lord then buried his face in his hands in a gesture of desperation.

' _Dear God, why that country again?'_

* * *

 **And boom, done.**

 **Another chapter full of good and less good times. A lot of POV's came up here, with all kinds of people hunting other and slowly closing in on those other people from all sides, with our favourite god still firmly in the lead of course.**

 **So yeah, I made five OC's, but don't worry too much about them, they'll die soon anyway without ever coming back except when mentioned in passing, nothing important.**

 **And for anyone wondering why their plan of kidnapping Rin was so lousy, well, that's because those Magi are dumb. Okay, dumb is not the correct word, as they certainly have a certain amount of cunning and intelligence, but they are arrogant to the bone and do not have much grip on reality anymore.**

 **They have grown fat and lazy on their continued successes, while expecting everything to go as they want. After all, the only ones they have to worry about are the Clocktower, which does not have much of a presence in Japan; Rin herself, who they consider to be an uneducated, Asian Hedge mage; and any possible other Magi who want to take their research.**

 **Hell, just realize that Rin would probably go straight to Kirei with the information if she had found the crooks herself and you'll understand those Magi did not think things though properly. In all honesty though, it might have had a little chance of succeeding had the circumstances been normal.**

 **Unfortunately for them, Shirou has now landed in the middle of their little schemes, and he is, as we all know, more than they could ever prepare for. Shirou can now finally enter the Moonlit World for real.**

 **Avalon and Mjolnir are becoming buddies in their shared mission to keep Shirou safe. Mjolnir is seeing already where this will lead however. Namely another waifu.**

 **Also Shinji, yeah, I need Shinji for now.**

 **Sakura gets a bit naughty with her sleeping Senpai, but both the wards around the house as well as Shirou's own divine presence keep the worms down. This is not because the worms are sentient and are able to realize the danger they are in, but more because of an instinct that says they should remain quiet, lest they be destroyed.**

 **Osaki and Yomaura are getting closer and closer to finding their perpetrator, drawing all kinds of conclusions, sometimes even the right ones, if for the wrong reasons. Shirou will have to confront them sooner or later however, so that's something to look forward to (or not, your own choice).**

 **We meet the OC's for a bit, as they needed some screentime, as well as establishing Shirou's enemy for the end of this arc. But, what's that at the end of this chapter? They are already being hunted by a certain someone else…**

 **And for those of you who are wondering why Shirou is grabbing everyone at the throat, well, I have found that throatgrabbing is something all Asgardians gladly participate in, so now Shirou has picked that up for a bit as well.**

 **Edit: Special thanks to hollowichigo12 for helping me work out ideas for this story. I had forgotten to add this at first, and that was not polite or gentlemanly at all, so here it is after all.**

 **Ah well, cheers.**

 **Ted.**


	10. Going to Town

**Going to Town**

Illyasviel von Einzbern was not a happy little girl.

It shouldn't have surprised anyone to hear such a thing. She often proclaimed it out loud in private, and would do so in her mind when she was in the company of others.

It wasn't something anyone wanted to hear from her of course, but it was the undeniable truth anyway.

Illyasviel, or Illya, was currently lying on her large, luxurious, and comfortable bed, idly staring at the ceiling as she tried to empty her mind in a fruitless effort to fall asleep.

If one would look through her personal room at that moment, one would never guess that she was living a miserable life, as the bed was far from the only luxury present. There were several large mirrors clad with gold, desks that seemed to be made from the most expensive of woods, closets that were filled to the brim with the most stylish of clothes, expensive little trinkets thrown about everywhere, and more.

But what could that do against the pain?

Illya was currently in pain, almost unbearably so. It was present in every aspect of her being. She was physically in pain from what her family had done to her, mentally in pain because of their vitriol and manipulations, and her heart ached like someone had thrown a dagger into it and was now twisting that dagger with glee.

The young Homunculus had just undergone yet another operation at the hands of the Einzbern's doll-makers. Contrary to normal operations done for normal people though, this one was not meant to improve her health, nor were any of the other operations she had gone through over the last years. Instead, they only served to ready her body for her imminent death.

Her family aimed to make her the perfect Master in the next War for the Grail, to win them that accursed cup and with it the usage of the Third Magic. Unfortunately, winning such a bloody slaughter required extensive magical power, which had motivated her dear grandfather to order her to be filled to the brim with Magic Circuits, to the point where most of her body was made out of them.

Illya could not deny it increased her power and reserves considerably, but that was not nearly enough to make up for the fact that they put those circuits into her through cruel operations, for which she wasn't sedated at all, making her body hurt pretty much all the time.

Her mind hurt too, if not as bad as her body and her heart.

It wasn't just the constant scrutiny and pressure she was under by her teachers and family-members, but also the constant manipulation they subjected her to. People trying to convince her the Einzbern were worth dying for, others telling her the outside-world was a bother and a threat, her grandfather hammering it into her mind that nothing was more important than family, even though the word clearly held no meaning to him.

It was such a bother to keep resisting against having their nonsense affect her, and it made her head ache.

It was nothing though, compared to the pain in her heart.

For as long as she could remember, her family had been nothing but cruel to her, treating her as a doll that was only slightly less disposable than the others, focusing on nothing but what she could do for them as a weapon.

It had been okay for the first years of her life however, as she still had had her father and her mother around. Emiya Kiritsugu and Irisviel von Einzbern had been the best parents she could have ever wished for, who actually treated her like a person.

They support and love had given her the strength to get through the cruel operations, to stay happy and cheerful no matter what. They had been a true little family, and Illya had often found herself wishing they could be together forever.

That was not to be; the Fourth Holy Grail War had made sure of that.

She hated it, she hated it more than even her grandfather. It had been because of that wretched slaughter, as her father had once named it, that she was now without her parents.

Her mother had been sacrificed to become the Lesser Grail, to serve as some sort of container, or that was what had been explained to her when they also told her she was to do the same in the next War.

But her father…

Her father had abandoned her. He'd had the Grail in his grasp, after sacrificing mama and aunt Maiya for it, before ordering his Servant to destroy the device, for no other reason than to spite the Einzbern.

And he hadn't even come back to her afterwards, instead remaining in Japan, building a life there, with a replacement for her. A son, they said, though they did not tell her anything but his name.

It was absolutely grating that her father had abandoned and replaced her like that. It hurt beyond belief. She had tried shutting herself off to those feelings, to hate her father instead of loving him, but the persistent dagger in her heart told her that it wasn't working at all. Hating the boy, Emiya Shirou, was much easier in comparison, and it was something she indulged in quite often these days.

She was about to sink into another fantasy of tearing the boy limb from limb, when the world suddenly decided to throw her a bone.

"Young miss Illya, you shouldn't just lay in bed all day!"

Illya just about jumped out of her skin when the door slammed open and two figures walked in. "You know the best thing to do after an operation is to stay busy, we have gone over that multiple times before."

Illya quickly sat up in bed, to greet the ones who had come barging in like they owned the place.

They were Sella and Leysritt, two other Homunculi, whose only task was to take care of the future Lesser Grail. In other words, to take care of Illya. A task they had taken to with vigour and unbridled enthusiams, much to Illya's gratitude.

They had been around for only six months now, but they were already very close to Illya, and though they were supposed to be loyal above all else to the Einzbern-family as a whole, Illya liked to think they were actually more loyal to her personally.

Well, either way, it was without a doubt that the maids were her favourite people in the castle. Not that such a thing meant all that much when the only competition for her favour was a gathering of power-hungry, selfish, and narcissistic Magi, but still.

Sella, with her mothering and always concerned attitude, was Illya's unofficial big sister. While being cold and distant to almost everyone, she hid an insecure and demure person inside that actually wanted to have a lot of friends.

Leysritt on the other hand was Illya's unofficial little sister, with her ditzy behaviour and her tendency to say everything she thought of out loud and unfiltered.

Their antics never failed to amuse their mistress, no matter in how bad a mood she was, and bantering with them was a great distraction, one she gratefully welcomed at the moment.

"I know that, Sella." She grumbled in response to the woman's earlier statement, getting up from the bed to sit on the chair at the make-up table in the corner of the room. "But it's not that easy to stay busy when I'm alone in here."

Sella's eyes softened at that, and Leysritt reached out to pat Illya on the head, her eyes conveying pity and empathy.

"We know, mistress, I am terribly sorry that we are so late, but we had to help clean up the garden after that idiot of a Remas blew a crater in it while practising his Magecraft." Sella said, bowing in a clear apology.

Illya's eyes widened at hearing the latest stunt the heir of the Einzbern had pulled today, barely suppressing a giggle at the mental image of Remas, the sadistic, mean-spirited brat that he was, blowing himself up.

"Ah well, I suppose it doesn't matter." She chirped, her mood having improved already. "Now come over here and comb my hair, I always look like such a mess after an operation. None of them know anything about proper hairstyles."

"Not surprising... They are... all idiots... anyway." Leysritt suddenly interjected, closing her eyes and nodding her head, as if imparting sagely wisdom to younger students. Her voice was so perfectly deadpan that Illya just had to snigger again. Leave it to the scatter-brained maid to make comments like that at the best of moments.

"Leysritt!" Sella exclaimed after hearing it, pressing a hand to her mouth in shock at her sister's words. "You shouldn't say such things, what if they overheard you? You know how petty they all are! You will be scrapped for sure by those- those-… those idiots!"

"Idiots." Leysritt nodded, now patting Sella's head, an approving smile on her face, eliciting a frustrated growl from her older sister.

It was all Illya could do to stop herself from bursting out into laughter now, desperately trying to hold back her giggles as she held both hands against her stomach.

"Stop it, please." She wheezed. "It hurts, it hurts if I laugh."

Sella rolled her eyes, as she ducked to escape the headpatting.

"I hardly see what's funny here, mistress." She huffed, quickly walking away and grabbing the comb. "It is a valid concern. Leysritt should watch her tongue and you shouldn't encourage her."

"But it's funny." Illya protested. "Leysritt should be encouraged to speak. No one ever comes here voluntarily anyway, unless it is to cast another spell in my room, so no one will hear her either. So keep saying funny things."

The last sentence was directed at Leysritt herself, who did not react overly much, but Illya was sure that she saw a little, tiny, almost imperceptible nod from the mostly expressionless maid. Evidently, Sella had seen it too, for she cast an exasperated look at her sister, before she turned to her mistress again.

"Mistress." She hissed, while continuing to comb said mistress' hair. "You know my sister has a tendency to speak her mind at all times. Even if there's no risk of anyone overhearing her _here,_ doesn't mean she won't say something similar elsewhere."

Illya, who had closed her eyes in content at the slow, methodical brushing, sat up straight, a frown coming to her face. She had to admit she had not thought of that. Counter measures had to be taken immediately.

She drew herself to her full height, which wasn't much, and pointed her finger at Leysritt, who blinked once in apparent surprise.

"Leysritt." Illya began in a commanding voice, ready to lay down the law. "You can only say funny things when there's no one else around, understood?"

Leysritt nodded, looking as serious as ever. Taking that as a sign of acceptance and agreement, Illya turned around again to give Sella a smile, only to find the more mature homunculus palming her face, releasing a exasperated sigh.

"I suppose that's the most I'm going to get out of you." The maid sighed, continuing the brushing of Illya's hair.

"Sel-la." Leysritt suddenly murmured, looking at her sister with urgency in her eyes. Sella didn't seem to understand for a moment, before her eyes widened and she almost dropped the comb from her hands.

"Sella?" Illya asked in concern.

"My deepest apologies, mistress." Sella said, regret very clear in her voice. "But we were not yet finished cleaning up the mess from Remas. We had permission from Lord Jubstacheit to inform you about our delay, but we had to return at once after that. I forgot about it completely. Please forgive me."

Illya blinked at the maid, before her face contorted in profound sadness as she understood what her older sister was telling her.

"You have to leave already?" She asked sadly, hoping to guilt them into staying somewhat longer, or at least, into promising they'd be back soon.

"Not by choice." Sella frantically assured her, fully caving in to Illya's sad expression. "We'll only be gone for half-an-hour more, then we'll be around for the entire day, I promise."

Illya perked up at that, happy that her tactic had born fruit, though there was one thing she did not understand yet.

"Still, it is strange for you to forget something like this, Sella. That's something I'd sooner from Leysritt." She stated, turning to said ditsy Homunculus right after. "Not that there's anything wrong with you, I love you, Leysritt."

"I… love… you too, mistress." Leysritt whispered haltingly, turning her face away for some reason.

Sella huffed, crossing her arms petulantly. "It had just slipped my mind when I went through the motions, there is no need to be so mean." She grumbled.

"Alright, I'm sorry, but you have to promise to be back as soon as possible." Illya responded, giving the maid her best smile, knowing she'd cave again after seeing it.

And indeed, Sella turned to look at her and lost the stern expression at once. "We shall endeavour to work as fast as is possible." She assured her older charge. "The others were already working on it, so it shouldn't take very long."

And with that, the maid turned on the spot and made for the door, reaching out to grab Leysritt in order to drag her along. Leysritt offered no resistance, calmly following her counterpart, waving Illya goodbye as they walked out of the door.

Illya herself made sure to wave back, keeping a smile on her face the entire time. Only when they were well and truly gone, did she allow it to drop. It would seem she was back to square one.

A look around her room revealed nothing more than it had before the maids had arrived, once more leaving her with very few options on what to do. Could she perhaps read a book? Maybe practice some Magic to hopefully see some improvement? But wouldn't that aggravate her new Circuits?

Still pondering on that issue, Illya suddenly found she had to suppress a large yawn. And then another a few seconds later, and she wasn't capable of stopping the third.

"Aaaaaaaaahn."

Feeling incredibly drowsy all of a sudden, Illya yawned at least three more times after that. She found herself to be tired. Not just tired as in 'I want to sleep', but tired as in 'I am going to fall asleep in a few seconds no matter what happens'.

Well, excellent, she had been hoping for that.

She stood up from her chair, almost falling over as the world started suddenly spinning in front of her eyes. Wow, she really was tired, wasn't she? Quickly half-running, half-stumbling over to her bed, she only managed to reach it just in time, before her eyes closed involuntarily.

Everything went dark, and her thoughts slipped away…

...

"Oh! Look, Illya. I found another one."

The white-haired girl opened her eyes again at the sound of the strangely familiar voice, blinking in confusion as she saw trees pass her by on both sides of her.

That was quite odd. She could have sworn she was sitting on something, not walking forward. A quick look down revealed the cause of her mobility.

She was just sitting on her father's neck, while he carried her through the woods on another one of their hunts for walnuts...

Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Her father?!

How was that possible?

Illya looked down again, confident her eyes had fooled her the first time…

Nope, Kiritsugu was still there, looking around for more walnuts.

For a moment, Illya felt utter joy, before realising that it was probably nothing more than a strangely vivid dream. Nevertheless, she kept her eyes on her father, determined to take advantage of the dream as much as possible...

"Don't just look at daddy, Illyasviel. Keep looking for those little brown things. We cannot lose against him." Another very familiar voice suddenly said.

The white-haired girl jerked around, eliciting a shock cry from her father. Right there, standing only a few yards away from them, was no one else than Irisviel von Einzbern, her mother, and the final confirmation that Illya was merely dreaming. Her mother was dead after all.

In dream though, her mama was apparently tagging along for this hunt. She did that sometimes, when she had some time to spare.

They would always team up against papa in those cases, just for that extra edge. It was interesting to note though that it was equally difficult to win against papa when she was alone as it was when she was teaming up with mama. In hindsight, maybe her papa had been holding back?

Illya rapidly shook her head free of such thoughts. It was hardly the time to think of such matters. Her parents were here, and dreamimages or not, Illya was not going to let that pass by. She would have to hug both of them as much as she could, while also finding more walnuts than papa. Even in a dream, she would not let him win.

Giving her mother a hug after getting her father to let her down, Illya set out to find the little things.

But no matter how much she looked, neither she not her parents managed to find another walnut. It was like they had disappeared after her father had found the last one, putting him ahead of her and mama by one.

"Oof." She grumbled eventually. "Looks like you win, papa. I can't find any of them anymore."

Seriously, who was stealing the walnuts? Was it grandfather? It was grandfather, no doubt about it.

Her father laughed softly in response to her statement.

"No reason to worry." He assured her. "Just take the last one I found, then your pile will always be bigger than mine."

Illya looked at the walnut in her papa's hand in surprise. He had never just given her one of their prized findings before. He always said she had to find the worthy things in life herself.

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"Of course, little one." He papa whispered, crouching down and pulling her in for a hug. "It is the very least I can do."

Puzzled by her father's words, Illya studied the walnut she had been handed. For all intents and purposes, it looked like a normal walnut, except for the letter 'E' having been carved into its surface.

' _Papa marked his walnuts?'_ She wondered, looking at the first letter of his last name.

This was definitely a strange dream, but she could not deny it made her very happy. Even if it was only in her head, it was still nice to see her parents again. Though, at the risk of sounding ungrateful, she wished she could actually speak with her real parents once more, not just with their dream-images.

"Then perhaps I can be of assistance, little one?"

The voice suddenly sounded from behind her, making Illya jump out of her skin for the second time that day. This time though, the voice she heard did not belong to her faithful maid, not did it belong to either one of her parents. In fact, it did not belong to anyone she knew.

The white-haired girl turned around at once upon having that realisation, arm stretched out in front of her and her other hand reaching to her head to pull out a few hairs should it be necessary. The pain she had felt previously was non-existent in her dream, but the effect of the many operations was now clearly noticeable, as countless patterns lit up on her skin, signifying the activation of Magic Circuits too numerable to count.

With the power now coursing through her, as well as the training she had undergone in order to become the perfect little weapon, the intruder in her dream would no doubt find that his day was about to become very painful.

That is, if she could actually manage to find said intruder.

Illya blinked a couple of times as she took in her surroundings. Her parents were in the opposite direction from where she had heard the voice, fortunately, but in front of her, there were only trees and other plants. She was surrounded by the forest, with no sentient being in sight.

There was no enemy Magus, no Dead Apostle, not even a spirit, demon or wraith. There didn't seem to be anyone, despite her clearly hearing a voice coming from a few metres behind her.

A horrible thought occurred to her: Was she crazy? Had she finally gone insane from all the abuse that had been heaped upon her? That couldn't be, she had been improving since Sella and Leysritt had appeared in her life, she hadn't heard the voices in months.

Yes, she had heard voices ever since the Fourth Grail War had ended. She admitted that, crazy as it made her seem, but those voices were not evil. They were only ever comforting her, reassuring her of the love her parents no doubt held for her. They had contributed greatly to her sanity being kept intact for those loveless years.

But those voices had stopped speaking ever since her maids had come into her life. Sella and Leysritt had taken over the duty of keeping their mistress sane, and the voices, as if feeling they weren't needed anymore, had gone silent.

And even if they were back, they had been soothing whispers in the back of her mind, not loud voices coming from behind her.

"True, but believe me, I'm still the same guy. I know we haven't spoken all that much lately, but you seemed to be managing pretty well now that you have some fellow Homunculi around. Still, I felt I couldn't really leave without giving you some kind of good-bye present, so I discussed and argued for a bit with my grouchy brother, and we eventually settled on something that was both nice to you, as well as convenient for the big-rescue-plot that's going to be executed soon."

The voice was now coming from right in front of her, giving credence to the invisible person-theory and prompting her to send out a wave of Prana in an attempt to locate the intruder. When that proved ineffective, she ran forward, as she attempted to home in on the voice. It was made easier by the fact that it just kept talking, going on and on about brothers, and fun things, and damsels in distress, and what not.

To be honest, Illya didn't really listen to its words, instead focusing on trying to find the source. But no matter where she moved or where she looked, the voice always remained a few feet away from her, though never hidden behind a tree or something, always in the open.

"…But, seeing that you aren't listening to my words at all, I will cut my speech short now and instead move on to my true purpose here. Now, I know young Angra will try something similar in a few years, to put you off balance with some kind of mockery-ghost-form of your mother, but rest assured, for my versions are the real versions. I'll even throw in a little extra at the end so you can be sure. Okay, enough out of me, bye."

And just like that, the tension that had surrounded her disappeared, and Illya knew the owner of the voice had left.

The white-haired girl lowered her hand again and slowly powered down her Circuits, though she kept them on stand-by for now. Her pulled-out strands of hair went into her pocket, for possible later use.

' _That was weird.'_ Illya thought, now noticing how she'd felt strangely unthreatened during the entire episode. _'I know this is a dream, but that felt way too real for comfort. Should I tell anyone of this happening? Would they even believe me? I think I should tell Sella and Leysritt at least…'_

"Illya?"

The girl froze in surprise upon hearing the choked voice behind her, a voice she'd thought she'd never truly hear again. A voice that sounded often enough in her dreams, yet sounded so impossibly _real_ now.

Illya spun around, immediately homing in on the origin of the choked voice. What she saw was enough to make her feel like her breath had been taken from her, for before her stood…

Irisviel von Einzbern.

Her mother.

And she did not mean some kind of dream-image like before. Illya could see her mother so much clearer now, every detail was visible. From the tearful eyes to the slightly older look.

Illya could not think for a moment, nor could she move, the only thing passing her lips being a choked sound. This had to be a hallucination, still just a happy dream, this was too good to be true…

As if she had heard Illya's thoughts, Irisviel then starting walked towards her daughter, tears rolling over the woman's cheeks as a loving smile came to her face. Said daughter did not dare move, afraid of dispelling the illusion she was now seeing before her, afraid of losing her mother all over again.

She needn't have feared. When the woman got close enough, a warm hand was placed on the younger girl's cheek, as her mother, her real, actual mother, looked at her with unconditional love in her eyes. Then Illya was drawn into a hug so tight it was almost crushing. It felt just like she remembered it, causing her to almost automatically wrap her own arms around the older woman in turn.

"Illya." The woman, no, her mama, whispered again. "My little girl, my precious little girl. It is so good to see you again."

She didn't say anything else, but Illya didn't need her to, as she hugged her mother with all of her strength, tears streaming soundlessly over her cheeks.

The two Homunculi stood like that for a while, until the older one gently withdrew herself from the hug. To make amends for that though, she placed her hand under her daughter's chin, guiding her eyes to her own.

"Mama?" Illya finally asked in a hushed tone, still almost unable to believe it. Seeing the woman nod in confirmation, the little girl laughed in ecstasy. "Mama! You are really here?"

"Yes, dearest." Irisviel replied, smiling so brightly that Illya was almost blinded. "Mama is really here, I am finally back. Oh, my little girl, I missed you so, so much, every second that I was away."

"But how are you here?" Illya asked, daring to ask that question now. "Grandfather said you died, that you were sacrificed as the Lesser Grail. Was he wrong? You survived anyway? But how did you get into my dream then?"

Irisviel's face fell at the question, making Illya's heart freeze once more in her chest. The younger Homunculus reached out, inexplicably already knowing what her mother was going to say.

"No, little one, I did not survive. I was sacrificed as the Lesser Grail when too many Servants had died for me to contain."

"But." She continued, cutting off the question on Illya's lips. "I was allowed to come back to you, for a short while at least. I don't know where I was after death, I cannot remember, but I do recall being approached by a being that offered me a chance to see you again, even if it was only for half-an-hour."

Illya turned her head up to give her mother a shocked look, before the words fully sunk in.

"Only half-an-hour? That's really everything? Can you not stay somewhat longer?" She pleaded, begging her mother to reconsider as fresh tears streamed over her face.

Irisviel's expression turned miserable when she saw her precious daughter in tears. She immediately lifted her up in order to hug her better, as she whispered soothing words in her ears.

"For now, it is half-an hour, no negotiation possible. But dear, this doesn't have to be the last time. Whatever being allowed me to appear before you has alluded to possible future repeats."

Illya pulled back from the hug to give her mother her most hopeful look.

"Really?" She asked.

"Really." Her mother confirmed.

Illya sniffed again, though this time in happiness.

"I am glad." She smiled through the tears. "This is the best day ever. Now, if only papa was here as well…"

She was cut off by a short cough coming from the left. Illya, for the third or maybe even fourth time today, jolted in shock, though this time her mama did so as well. Simultaneously, the two white-haired Homunculi turned towards the direction the sound had originated from, only for their jaws to drop in shared surprise.

A few seconds later however, Irisviel's expression turned into a delighted one, while Illya wrestled herself lose from her mother's embrace to run towards the source.

"Papa!" She cried out, catching him in a flying hug with all her strength, though it did not even stagger him, just as she remembered.

"Hey, sweetling." He murmured as he easily caught her in his arms, hugging her tenderly for a few seconds, before walking over to hug his wife as well, Illya still in his arms. The adults ended up sandwiching Illya between them as a result, but the girl had better things to do right now than complain about a minor issue like that.

Eventually though, the need to breathe forced the little girl to release herself form the two-way hug.

"A-Are you still alive, papa?" She breathed after freeing herself, wanting to believe he had made it to Germany alive, but having a feeling that told her otherwise. "Can you stay here?"

"...Only for half-an-hour." Her papa sighed, looking away in sadness, confirming her suspicions.

Illya's clenched her eyes shut for a moment, the truth settling in. Her papa really was dead then.

But that wouldn't save him from her anger, no sir! She was going to rage against him, truly she was, no matter how glad she was to see him and mama again.

"What happened?" She demanded, puffing out her cheeks in an attempt to look intimidating and enraged, something that was ruined by the happy tears still streaming over her face, as well as her refusal to let go of him for even a second.

It was not a precise question, but it conveyed the sentiment just fine to Kiritsugu, who knew he should start explaining things fast. He owed them that and much more, and it would not be a bad idea to inform Illya of her adopted brother, so that _when_ , not if, Shirou would save her from this place, she would already have some knowledge of him.

So with that in mind, he, along with Irisviel, told Illya the story of the Fourth Holy Grail War, the slaughter that it had become, the tragedies that had occurred, and the price that their little family had had to pay for participating.

Illya proved to be a good listener, gasping at just the right moments, and crying sad tears when she was told of Maiya's death. They had to put a hold on the story when Irisviel herself had died, as Illya now hugged her mother very tightly for a good few minutes.

When she had regained her composure, Kiritsugu went on with the story, skipping over the unimportant parts, though he did mention Kotomine Kirei's betrayal, as well as Gilgamesh's shift in loyalty, assuming the monster had any to begin with.

Both Irisviel and Illyasviel turned white as chalk however when they heard of the thing residing in the Grail, as well as its offer to Kiritsugu. Quite the accomplishment for the women, as they were already stark-white to begin with. There was no denying the sheer horror in their eyes though when he told them of the resulting fire.

"Papa, what did you do then?" Illya asked him fearfully, looking at him with a worried expression.

"I ran into the fire." He told them bluntly, wincing as he saw their rising panic.

"I didn't get hurt anymore than I already was." He amended, already having told them of the curse that had been put over him. "I was searching for survivors among the rubble and the dead, it was the least I could do after causing that disaster. I couldn't find anyone at the fringes though, so I went to the core of the fire, where no one should have been alive."

"But…?" His wife prompted, looking at him with the patient and loving expression he had missed so much over the years.

"But I miraculously did find someone still alive. Against all odds, this boy still clung on to life by a thread, long enough for me to merge Avalon with him, which healed him of all maladies, which it had never done before for anyone other than Arturia, now that I think about it. Now, please don't get mad at me, but I ended up adopting him…"

"Emiya Shirou, right?" Illya interjected, for the first time feeling no rage or jealousy at the mention of the name of the boy, who appeared to be a victim as much as she was.

Her knowledge visibly surprised her father, who muttered something about 'Old Man Acht' and 'stalkers'. He refocused quickly enough though, and continued his story about what had happened during the years after the war.

The parts with Shirou were very amusing, and both Illya and Iri had to laugh out loud when Kiritsugu told them of how he had tricked the boy into becoming a god-level cook because he thought that such a thing was necessary to become a hero.

He told them proudly of Shirou's dedication, of his drive to help as many people as he could. About how he had already managed to find himself an almost-but-not-quite girlfriend when he was still a young lad and, finally, about the boy's promise to do what he himself could not.

It was with a heavy heart that Illya listened to her father telling them of his own slow and drawn-out death, believing he had failed his family and only leaving a son behind as a good deed for the world.

When his story was finished, the first thing Irisviel did was curse Old Man Acht for his numerous crimes, with insults and curses that Illya had never even heard about before. The younger girl agreed wholeheartedly with her mother though. To deny her papa access to the castle when he was too weak to slaughter them all, what cowards indeed.

"But what about you, Illya?" Her father suddenly asked, his expression suggesting he was preparing himself for a lot of bad news. "What have you been up to since we left?"

"Me? Uh... Not very much actually."

Illya then attempted to cover as many subjects as she could, from rumours she'd heard, like the one about the Queen of the Clocktower being harrowed to marry yet refusing any suitors, to her personal happy experiences, such as getting Sella and Leysritt as her maids.

She did her best to skip past the less happy, feel-good parts, like the many operations, yet she had the feeling both her parents were more than capable of reading between the lines, if the bone-crushing hugs she got from her mother and the anger in her father's eyes were any indication.

"I cannot properly express how proud I am of you, sweetling." Her papa said, looking at her with the warm eyes he only ever directed at mama, her, and aunt Maiya. Her mama echoed similar sentiments, making her heart swell at the praise. "But it is entirely understandable you don't want to hear such things from me anymore."

Illya's head jerked up at the last statement, as she watched her father step away from them, a heavy frown on his face.

"Papa?" "Dear?" Illya and Irisviel whispered, both feeling very worried for the most important man in their lives.

"Iri, Illya, I must apologise for what I have done to you. Let me finish!" He began, cutting them off before they could react. "My years here with you, the time I spent here, were the best of my life. You gave me more peace and happiness than I could have ever imagined, and I am more grateful for that than I can express."

Illya smiled at her father's words, though Irisviel looked saddened at the reminder of her husband's terrible life before he had arrived at the Einzbern's castle.

"You have given me everything I could have wanted, yet in the end, I threw it all away for a dream I knew I could never realise. I let you become the Grail, Iri, and I left you here alone, Illya, to chase after a shade I knew I could never catch. Among my countless mistakes, those were without a doubt the greatest I ever made. I am sorry, I am so incredibly sorry."

By this time, her father had bowed in front of the two of them, face down and voice so pained it hurt Illya just to listen to it.

Her mama clearly thought so as well, if her expression was anything to go by. Without saying a word, she walked up to her husband, grabbed his shoulders, pulled him into a standing position,

And smacked him in the face.

"Ow!" Kiritsugu said, more out of disbelief than actual pain.

"You stupid idiot of a man." Illya's mother hissed, looking reproachfully at the former mercenary. "You are blaming yourself for things outside your control. There was nothing you could have done to prevent what happened to the two of us. I was fated to die from the moment I was born, no matter who the Master representing the Einzbern would be. You at least tried to bring me some happiness in my life. The fire in Fuyuki-City is to blame on Kotomine, Gilgamesh, and especially Angra Mainyu. The fact that you couldn't get to Illya is Old Man Acht's fault. Nothing of it was ever your fault, you just dealt with the horrible hand you were given."

Her mama's voice started strong and stern at the beginning of her speech, but as she continued talking, it grew softer and kinder, until she had taken papa in a hug again, whispering things Illya couldn't hear into his ear.

The white-haired girl made sure to nod her head when her father glanced at her, showing she completely agreed.

His eyes visibly lightened upon seeing that. As her parents hugged each other again, Illya grinned widely, feeling delighted at the happiness that was again prevalent in their little family...

And it was right this moment that a soft chime sounded throughout the area.

It ended as suddenly as it had started. The three people present at the small clearing in the woods looked around for the source, before her father suddenly sat up straight.

"I fear our time here is up." He said in response to his daughter's and wife's questioning gazes, as he held up an arm that was slowly falling apart in particles of light, as if he were a disappearing Servant.

"Well, we did for stay way longer than thirty minutes." Irisviel remarked, grinning slightly at their own forgetfulness. "We must have been here for hours already." A glance from Illya at the sun, assuming that thing could be trusted in a dream, confirmed the statement.

 _'_ _Strange.'_ She though, perturbed but not ungrateful in any way for the extra time they had been granted.

She threw her arms around her parents one last time.

"Be back soon. I'll wait here, at least until Shirou can pick me up." She mumbled. "I love you."

Her only response were two happy, yet also sad smiles, before her mama and papa fully disappeared, back to where they had came from, wherever that was.

It should have filled her with heart-breaking sorrow and loss, yet Illya could only feel content and immense relief.

Her mama and papa hadn't abandoned her after all. They had wanted to return to her, only to be stopped by stupid Grails, stupid grandfathers and all-around stupid circumstances.

It frankly made her want to strangle both Angra Mainyu and her grandfather to dead, but for now, she would bask in the content.

It was only a few moments later however that Illya noticed her dream was falling apart at the seams, until she found herself laying on her bed again, in the same position as before, with several hours having gone by. Her mind immediately went over what had just happened.

Had that been real, or merely a dream?

Illya's question was answered when she felt something in her hand. A very familiar shape, one that she had held countless times in the past.

She was holding a walnut, and not just any walnut, but specifically the one her papa had given to her in her dream. It even had the letter 'E' carved into it.

Illya gave a squeal of happiness as she raised her fist into the air, the knowledge that she had really spoken with her mama and papa bringing back all the content she'd felt previously and then some...

And then the door was thrown open behind her again.

"Mistress." Sella panted out, gasping for breath, with Leysritt being in much the same condition behind her. Their faces were red of exertion and their outfits were sloppily put on.

Not noticing, or perhaps not caring about her mistress' chuckles at the sight, Sella continued:

"I can only offer you our most sincere apologies for being so incredibly late. Not to make excuses, but it seemed as if every time we were finished cleaning up one mess, another would come into existence right away."

"Sorry." Leysritt murmured, bowing low towards Illya, making her unfastened headpiece fall off and her short hair splay out over her face.

"Leysritt!" Sella hissed. "I told you to refasten that before it dropped off, you, you… Ugh." With a growl, Sella grabbed the headpiece from the floor and put it back on Leysritt's head, taking care to fasten it properly this time.

"Ahem." Illya cleared her throat, making the maids turn their heads towards them. "It's okay, you two. I was able to amuse myself well enough while you were away. Now that you're here though, let's practice our spells for a bit."

Looking slightly bemused at her sudden request, Sella nodded slowly in acquiescence, taking place at one of the desks with her young charge.

After brushing up on her theoretical knowledge offensive spells with Sella, Illya cajoled Leysritt into a spar, as the ditsy maid was a far better fighter than her sister. Illya used her spells, while Leysritt used the Halberd that had been provided to her.

Illya could barely keep up with her honourary younger sister in battle. Her movements were quick and precise, and barely left any time for the smaller girl to do anything but block or dodge as well as she could.

It was as if Leysritt became a totally different person while fighting. No longer was she ditsy, distracted, and slow, rather she was a mean fighting machine that was at the absolute pinnacle of combat as far as Illya had ever seen.

And everyone knew of it too. Even the rest of the Einzbern-family didn't dare challenge her, wanting to avoid the embarrassment of being defeated by a mere doll.

Sella meanwhile was standing on the side-lines, watching with a poorly hidden anxious expression at her dears putting themselves at risk with such barbarous training, which she nonetheless knew to be necessary, unfortunately.

Illya on the other hand grinned widely in happiness and content.

There was no doubt about it. When the time came to escape, her maids would be coming with her no matter what. She was sure her new brother would understand.

During a short lull in the fight, she directed her gaze Eastwards, where said new brother was currently residing.

' _I'll see you soon then, Onii-chan. I wonder what it is that you are doing right now.'_

* * *

"Stop him! He can't make it to…"

A punch.

"Damn it, I can't see anyth…"

A kick

"Where the he…"

A jab of an elbow.

"Stand still and let me shoo…"

A fist brought down mercilessly on an unsuspecting head.

In a not-entirely abandoned building, criminals were dropping like flies. The building was completely dark, except for the meagre light of the moon and the stars, just enough to allow the people present to see some kind of shape taking down their 'colleagues', before coming for them.

The crooks that were watching could not fathom what could possibly be going on. All they knew was that something was attacking from the shadows, faster than they could follow, much less react to.

There was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was not a human. This was a vengeful and wrathful creature, a greater being that had descended from a higher plane of existence to smite them for their foul deeds. It was crushing them without effort or consideration, probably not even paying them any attention while it slaughtered them.

This was what they thought. They were not wrong.

Emiya Shirou was a man who was slowly turning into a space-god, someone who fought criminals on a daily basis without any effort and with great effectiveness. He was powerful, intelligent and skilled, and his missions were always a great success.

That did not mean however that he didn't have any problems. On the contrary even.

' _This is getting me nowhere.'_ Shirou thought irritably.

He was currently busy culling the gangs in Ise, the home-town of Kurata. As said before, when it came to removing criminals and gang-members from the streets, he was on a roll, having already taken down the majority of the gangs, as well as a large portion of the black market.

Too bad though that his other mission wasn't going nearly as well.

Not a single clue relating to the Magi could be found, no matter how much he searched or who he interrogated. He was slowly growing frustrated with it, but there was simply nothing to be found in this city. Absolutely nothing.

Of course, that did not mean he saw the weeks he spent fighting gangs as wasted time. No matter how incompetent and foolish they might be, the crooks had still been threatening and hurting people, making it necessary to put an end to their activities. He would never regret spending time to help people who were in need of it.

That being said, he was admittedly slightly glad that he was just about finished with his outings to Ise. According to police-records, the gangs were on their last legs, and the police were already mounting an offensive against the left-overs and the stragglers. It was probably for the best he would not come back after tonight, as he wouldn't want to have them direct their attention at him.

He could only hope that the next city would hold more clues for him.

But now it was time to return home.

Coming out of his musings, Shirou look around for a bit, studying the bodies on the floor, making sure no one was pretending to be unconscious. Once this was ascertained, he made for the exit, calling the police on his burner-phone on the way.

Of course, he would be long gone by the time they arrived, even though they were significantly faster than their Fuyuki-counterparts. The third time he had called them to a location where he had fought, he had been unpleasantly surprised by their swift reaction, as he had been lingering around for a bit too long then.

A mistake he wouldn't make again. After hanging up the phone, ignoring the protests of the woman on the other end who pleaded with him to just wait for once, he walked through the door and, after making sure no one was looking, launched himself into the air again.

As he flew, Shirou mind turned to other matters, specifically an upcoming event that worried him more than all of the crime-fighting he had done up until now.

He had been invited by Ayako for dinner at her place.

Apparently, her parents had heard about him, their daughter's new friend who had invited her for dinner once. According to Ayako, they had been delighted to hear about it, and had demanded that she invited him and Sakura over to spend dinner at their place to both pay them back and to get to know them better, as friends of their daughter.

Not seeing any reason to refuse, Shirou and Sakura had graciously accepted the invitation.

So that was basically the plan for over a few days, and he couldn't deny he was very curious about Ayako's family, which consisted of martial artists and all-round badasses, if she was to be believed. He would have to make a good impression on them...

Lost in his thoughts as he may have been, the red-haired teen did not miss it when he arrived above his own house. A quick descend and a flawless landing later, he stood in his backyard once again, with plenty of time to spare before Sakura would arrive.

Which meant he had time to read the mysterious letter that had arrived that evening.

Letters and the like would normally arrive in the morning, as they were supposed to, but that evening, right after Sakura and Taiga had left for the night, a letter had arrived anyway.

As he had been about to leave for his nightly business, Shirou had put it aside, relying on the fact that if it had been delivered as late as it had, it could not contain very relevant information for the very near future.

There was no reason to put it off now however, so after stashing away his outfit, mask and boots, he walked back inside, sat down at the table, picked up the envelope from where he had left it that evening, and, without further ado, ripped it open to reveal its contents.

It was a rather impressive looking letter, with the big and important looking seal of Fuyuki at the top of the page, indicating it was sent by the city's council-members.

Scratching his head for a bit, Shirou unfolded the paper, and started reading.

...

 _Dear young inhabitant of Fuyuki-City,_

 _This letter has no doubt come as a surprise to many of you, as you've likely never before been addressed by the council or any other city-official in such a way. But fear not, for you have done nothing wrong nor are you in any kind of trouble._

 _This letter was sent with the intention of making all citizens between ten and eighteen, as well as their relatives, aware of a problem that has been playing for a long time: The complete and utter lack of swimming capabilities of the youth._

 _This has not been much of problem before, or at least it hasn't been seen as such, because despite having a river in the city and being in close vicinity of the ocean, very few people have ever drowned in either._

 _However, in recent years, the number of drownings in and around Fuyuki has increased greatly, making it necessary for the council to interfere before more of such tragedies take place, especially since they could have been avoided with little effort._

 _Thanks to a generous donation of a wealthy and concerned citizen, going by the name of B. Yonder, the council has been able to arrange a swimming course for the children belonging to the previously specified age-group._

 _We would like to inform you that participation is mandatory and that no exceptions will be made except in the direst of circumstances or when legitimate reasons have been given as to why one is incapable of participating._

 _Now for some practical information:_

 _The lessons will take place in the town of Fuyuki itself, where the swimming pool has been booked for regular lessons. The course itself will last three months, with lessons twice a week._

 _It will be finished with an exam, in order the examine the general skill of every participant. This exam will take place in the city of Hikone, located at a five-hour drive from Fuyuki itself. The reason the exam will be held there is because many cities are participating in this initiative, and Hikone lays very central compared to all other cities. Because of the long drive, the night after the exam will be spent in Hikone itself, in three-star hotel Maihame, payed for in full by mister Yonder._

 _Despite the rather large swimming facilities present in our own fair city, the number of adolescents is still too high for them all to receive the course at once, thus groups have been made. These groups will have their lessons in different blocks._

 _The precise grouping, as well as the dates, can be found on the official town-hall site. Should one be otherwise occupied on one's appointed date and time, a request for rescheduling or permitted absence can be submitted, as long as a valid reason is given._

 _With this, all information has been relayed. We of the council wish you a happy day._

 _Was signed,_

 _Meigo Hinamora._

 _..._

Shirou blinked. Then he read the letter again. He blinked once more.

He was officially surprised. He hadn't been aware at all that most teens in the city apparently weren't able to swim. Kiritsugu had made sure he was capable and later also proficient in swimming, as it was a useful skill for heroes to have, though not nearly as important as cooking of course.

Still, while the news itself wasn't unwelcome, as Shirou would always be in favour of actions that would result in fewer people dying, this letter itself was weird in many ways. For one, there was the suddenness of it all. Shirou had always made sure he was up to date on matters concerning the city, and he was confident he had heard nothing about swimming lessons before this point. So for the council to drop this on the populace out of nowhere was very surprising, and very unlike the council he knew.

It was also quite strange that a single person was apparently funding this on his own, without even cashing in the obvious boost in reputation that such a thing would grant him. Was that not the whole point of sponsorship? Or did mister Yonder have another goal in mind with this?

The most concerning point of the entire matter however was the fact the swimming exam would be held in Hikone, the one city he wanted to investigate that was too far away for him to be able to visit by himself.

It almost seemed too convenient for it to be a coincidence, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out who or what could and would manipulate things to such a degree seemingly to help him.

Before he could think on it too much however, Mjolnir suddenly acted up again, humming slightly in content, showing its support for just following the flow.

So with a sigh, Shirou let the matter drop for the moment.

' _Still, swimming lessons of all things?'_ Shirou mused to himself. _'If there is indeed something behind this all, then why swimming lessons?'_

Mjolnir did not answer, an amused feeling being everything Shirou got out of it.

* * *

Straightening his shirt beneath his coat, Shirou walked up to the front door of Ayako's house. He had to admit he felt a slight tinge of nervousness. For some reason, he felt like he absolutely had to make a good impression on Ayako's parents, lest trouble of some kind would arise.

Trusting his instincts, he had thus asked Neko-san for a few hints on what to do, and she had fortunately understood exactly what he had been going for. Though why she had chuckled after saying such was a complete mystery to him.

When she had gotten over her laughter, she had summarized the event as a dinner spend with friends. As such a thing was hardly official, it wasn't needed to go decked in a fancy suit or something. She had advised wearing tidy, neat clothes, as well as working a bit on his hair. That should be enough to show his sincerity, as well as making sure he didn't come over as too posh.

The time of dinner had been set on seven o'clock straight, and as such, he had arrived precisely on the dot. According to Neko-san, it was slightly more fashionable to either arrive earlier or a tiny bit later, but he didn't see the need for it.

Shirou reached out to knock on the door, which opened only a few seconds later, by Ayako herself, who grinned widely upon seeing him. A small glance down her body revealed she was also dressed for the occasion.

It was with a raised eyebrow that Shirou took in her appearance. Don't get him wrong though, it was by no means displeasing to look at. It simply was something he hadn't expected.

Normally, the exuberant girl would be clad in functional and practical clothes, like trousers or a pencil skirt, blouses, shirts or vests, yet tonight, she had chosen to wear a black dress that fitted her form perfectly, accentuating her growing curves and even having a slit on the side showing off a bit of leg. As a finishing touch, she had apparently chosen to wear a small silver necklace.

Shirou had to admit she looked stunning.

"Hey Shirou." She chirped, opening the door fully and coming to stand in front of him.

"Hello Mitsuz- Ayako, I mean." He replied, quickly changing his way of addressing her when her eyes narrowed.

She had decided some time ago that their relationship had evolved enough for them to be on a first-name-basis. Sakura had agreed, and Shirou, who wasn't even able to deny something to them when they were separated, did not stand a chance against them together, making him agree to it as well, save for the occasional slip-up.

"Come in, come in." Ayako beckoned him, letting him step inside the house. After he had put away his coat and shoes, she grabbed his arm and pulled him along the dining room, an enthusiastic smile back on her face.

Before they entered the room though, Ayako suddenly came to a halt. Having quite fast reflexes, Shirou stopped before running into her, though he did give the back of her head a surprised look at the sudden stop.

"Alright, you are probably wondering why we are standing still." Ayako said, as if having read his mind. She turned around to face him, rubbing her hands nervously and glancing to the side every time he attempted to make eye-contact with her. "So… You are going to meet my parents in a few moments, and I just wanted to lay out a few things before that happens, you know? To make sure you won't be surprised at their behaviour."

Now that was unexpected, and it was also enough to make him narrow his eyes. He might be a somewhat slow learner and a bit of a dense person, but even he could understand that such an opening could not be a good thing.

His fist clenched at his side, the other grasping as if desiring to take hold of Mjolnir. If Ayako was going to tell him now that her parents were anything less than stellar, he'd need to have a 'discussion' with them at once.

It would seem he was wrong in that, admittedly hastily made, assumption though, as Ayako immediately started waving her hands in front of her in denial after seeing his displeased expression.

"No, no, no, it is nothing like that." She hastily assured him. "It's just that my parents think that we are either dating or going to date soon."

For a moment after this declaration, there was silence. Then Ayako brought her hands in front of her mouth, her face turning red as she realised what she had said.

Shirou however was quite relieved to hear that. He had really assumed the worst for a moment there. He knew he was not the best at spotting things like abuse and bullying unless it happened right in front of him, so hearing Ayako start a conversation like that had worried him. He honestly though he had missed it for all the time he had known her, but there was nothing to really worry about.

"I see." He said, giving the girl in front of him small smile, hoping to dispel the slight awkwardness. "I suppose it is not that strange of them to think or hope for that. I believe that is a part of the role of a parent." .

"Maybe." Ayako huffed in response, relaxing slightly at his calm reaction to the bomb she had inadvertently dropped on him. "But it is still awkward to listen to them going on and on about it. And I was worried it would be even more so if mom started talking about it with you here, so I decided to speak to you first. So, please don't be insulted when mom and dad start talking about dating."

"Thank you for the consideration." Shirou said with a grateful smile. "It could have been quite awkward to be surprised by such a thing, though I wouldn't feel insulted at all by someone believing I was dating someone as amazing as you."

And that was the truth. There was no denying Ayako was a fantastic person, who would no doubt make someone very happy one day, though he feared she would in fact be hard pressed to find someone worthy enough of her.

Hearing no answer from the girl standing across from him, Shirou straightened his back and turned towards the door leading to the dinner room, correctly assuming the conversation was over for now. It was probably for the best if he would face the adults in the house as soon as possible.

Of course, that one action also caused him to completely miss the bright blush that came to Ayako's face, as well as how she almost recoiled in shock. And with him missing that, there was no chance of him ever noticing how said blush was followed by a small, tender smile in his direction.

Ayako sighed deeply at the unintentionally romantic words. She was aware her crush on the boy had grown over the past months into something more, but him doing and saying things like that really drove it home.

She didn't know yet if she truly loved him, as she was too young to say anything about such matters, but she definitely wouldn't say no to dating him, that was certain, which actually made her mother's comments all that more embarrassing.

She actually would have contemplated making her move on him, if it hadn't been for one thing standing in her way. An insurmountable obstacle, called Matou Sakura.

There was no way in hell that Ayako would snatch the plum-haired girl's crush away from her. Not only was she there first, she was also a great friend, remaining kind and polite even though Ayako was visibly intruding upon her territory.

It wasn't against any and every form of friendship to swoop in and steal one's crush like that, and Ayako wanted to be a good friend, not a completely rotten backstabber, so she wouldn't pursue Shirou, even though that decision left her feeling strangely hollow inside.

In the meantime, Shirou had spotted Sakura sitting at the table in the dining room, right next to a little boy, who he assumed to be Minori; Ayako's little brother. The brunette often spoke of her sibling whenever she got the chance, sometimes angrily, sometimes laughingly, yet always with a tender and fond undertone.

Shirou couldn't quite supress a tinge of annoyance however, when he realised just how close to Sakura the boy was sitting. He supposed it was nothing more than expected that they would have to share different sides of the table, but there was no reason at all for Minori to practically position himself on Sakura's lap, as he was doing right now.

He didn't exactly know why he was feeling so strongly about that, but he was aware he didn't like it one bit.

It was to his great surprise that Mjolnir, ever present inside his head, suddenly 'voiced' its agreement, insisting on Shirou going over there to break them up as soon as possible.

Nevertheless, before he could follow through with Mjolnir's suggestion, his attention was diverted by Ayako's parents standing up from the table. The matter was far from over though, and Shirou decided to keep a close eye on the young boy from now on, as for some reason, he rubbed Shirou completely the wrong way.

"Welcome to our home. My name is Mitsuzuri Chiaki. I assume you are Emiya Shirou." The woman, who was coming up to stand on his right, began, bowing elegantly.

"I am indeed." He confirmed, returning the bow. "I am Emiya Shirou, it is an honour to make your acquaintance, Mitsuzuri-san, I hope it will be a pleasant evening for all of us."

The man now standing on his left, who he took to be Ayako's father, grinned at his response. "Name's Mitsuzuri Ryozo, kid. Nice indeed to finally meet the one my daughter has been so lyrical about during the past weeks." The man, Ryozo, said, never losing his grin for the entirety of his sentence, though Shirou did not miss how the man seemed to be etching closer to him.

Introductions made, and having decided he was close enough to pull of the finishing move, the man suddenly entered Shirou's private space, towering over Shirou and casting a glare at him, no doubt intended to be intimidating.

It had little effect on Shirou however, who was at most mildly surprised at the man's actions, wondering what had caused the sudden shift in mood that had just occurred. Chiaki-san did not seem surprised in the slightest however, making this a pre-planned move most likely.

Shirou weighed his options for a moment, but eventually just settled on a dry look.

Seeing that, the man grinned again, his earlier glare gone, falling back a little bit and leaving the private space he had so rudely entered just seconds before.

"Not impressed by my intimidation hah?" He asked, an approving expression now replacing the grin. "Good! I can't have you be a wuss, not when you are no doubt intending to date my beautiful daugh…"

"Dad!" An outraged voice suddenly shrieked, making Shirou and also Sakura start slightly at its volume and suddenness. The next moment, Ayako had thrown herself bodily across the room at her father, slinging her arms around his neck and effectively shutting him up. It was slightly too late though, as both she and Shirou now sported blushes.

Hoping for some damage-control, Ayako turned around lightning-quick towards Shirou. "Ignore my father." She said. "He's just senile, and wants to embarrass us as well."

"I figured." Shirou answered with a nod, casting a pointed glare in the direction of her father, hoping to convey that the man should keep such statements to himself for tonight, as this was supposed to be a calm dinner.

It was not to be though, as the grin the man was still sporting indicated quite clearly that he was already planning his next move.

While the four of them walked to the table, with Ayako immediately making sure to place Shirou between Sakura and herself, Ryozo kept making off-colour jokes about Shirou's intention to chase after his daughter and how he would have to fight for his daughter's purity, while Chiaki happily praised Ayako for managing to conquer such a 'fine specimen'.

By the time the food was ready, Ayako was as red as a tomato, with Shirou not faring much better. He could only shake his head, as Ayako's warning had been spot on apparently.

Trying his best to ignore the inappropriate commenting, he greeted Sakura warmly, getting a happy response back. He idly noted from the corner of his eye that Minori did not seem happy at all with him saying hello to Sakura, which made him feel strangely satisfied for some reason.

Looking Sakura over, he found that she looked beautiful as well this evening. Of course, she was always very pretty, no matter the circumstances, but it was only accentuated tonight, now that she was wearing a simple, yet very elegant, one-piece, purple dress, with a small jacket worn over it.

He could only note once more just how appealing to the eye both his female companions were, though he was quick to discard those thoughts once he consciously realised that he was harbouring them. Having lewd thoughts about his friends was not acceptable.

Meanwhile, the teasing coming from the adults in the room let up once they saw that neither of their targets were paying any attention to them anymore, prompting them to just begin eating, leaving the kids be for now.

"I see that you were present here before I arrived. Were you very early this evening, Sakura?" Shirou asked, wondering whether Neko-san's statements about being fashionably early or late would hold any truth to them.

"Oh, not at all Senpai." Sakura hastily assured him. "I only arrived a few minutes before you did, but that's because I slightly miscalculated how long it would take me to get ready for this dinner when I was preparing at home. This is my first formal dinner to be honest. I am still not quite sure if I am dressed correctly actually, grandfather was not much of a help."

"You and me both, dear." Ayako grumbled. "I've hoisted myself in outfits like this before, but I never seem to be able to grasp right combinations or the appropriate amount of formality. Mom had to send me back to get changed again thrice this evening alone.

"I understand completely." Shirou replied. "I had much the same problem, which prompted me to ask Neko-san for help." He didn't need to explain who Neko-san was, as he had introduced the girls to the daughter of the shop-owner some time ago already, when they had stopped by at the Copenhagen to see the place he worked at.

Upon seeing his friends, Neko-san had grinned widely for some reason, nudging him with her elbow when Ayako and Sakura had been looking elsewhere. When he had asked her why she did so though, she only replied he would understand when he was older.

"But you don't have to worry at all, either one of you." He continued, reaching out to pat Sakura's head and Ayako's back. "You both look fantastic tonight, even more so than usual I mean.

And as expected for all those who were not named Emiya Shirou, Sakura turned red at his words, almost wiggling in delight at the knowledge that her Senpai thought she was beautiful. Ayako too was flattered by his words, but her eyes were fixed at Shirou's left hand on Sakura's head, wishing he would pat her head as well, instead of only her back.

It was also notable that Minori seemed to glare at Shirou during the exchange, and especially at the hand on Sakura's head.

"That's really kind of you to say, Senpai." Sakura murmured, missing the glares both Mitsuzuri-siblings had aimed at the hand on her head, though both for different reasons. "You also look good tonight. Not that you don't look good normally of course, but even more so now, you know?"

"Quite so." Ayako agreed, having put her little bout of jealousy behind her. "You're looking very handsome."

It went unnoticed to them that the adults in the room were watching like hawks, only pretending to be deep in conversation with each other. Chiaki half smiled at the clear feelings of attachment her daughter was feeling towards the Emiya, yet narrowed her eyes at the other girl in the room. Not out of dislike, but more out of a sense of dread that this could be the prelude to a lot of drama.

Ryozo's focus however was not on the girls, but rather on his son and his male guest. He was a mature and sensible man, no matter how much he liked teasing, and as such, had no problem at all with seamlessly picking up on the hostility that Minori was feeling for the Emiya, as well as the cause for that hostility.

The man sighed, not looking forward to the drama that just might come from this. It wasn't his place to interfere though, and he could only hope his son would take his loss graciously when the time came.

"Ah yes." Minori suddenly interjected, pulling the attention of the other three teens towards him, the adults being too preoccupied with imagining doom-scenarios to pay attention to what their youngest child was saying. "Sakura-san arrived somewhat early this evening, but I was here to entertain her while we had to wait for you to arrive at last. Taking your sweet time no doubt."

"Well then, thank you very much, Minori-san." Shirou replied, wondering why it was that a tiny part of him now wanted to glare at the young boy. "You two have met each other before then?"

Minori opened his mouth to respond, with another biting remark no doubt, but he was cut off by his sister before he could.

"Indeed, this little runt goes to the same school as we do, and sometimes comes along when we are talking during the breaks." Ayako grinned, winking at her little brother. "Sometimes he is with his friends, though why he keeps the ones that he currently has around him, I don't know. They're jerks really."

Minori spluttered at her words, sending her an outraged look, no doubt because he thought she made him look ridiculous in front of 'Sakura-chan', as he was fond of calling her in private. Better to never let Sakura find out about that, or Shirou for that matter.

"Come now, Ayako." Sakura huffed, pouting slightly, making said girl's heart skip a beat at how cute she looked. "Minori-san's friends are kind as well, and it is nice of Minori-san himself to come by when we are having a break to talk to us. I do like talking to him, you know? My brother doesn't do that."

Ayako flinched at those words, despite how kind and well-meant they were.

 _'First of all, dear, that's setting the bar real low.'_ She thought, now trying to formulate a sentence for damage-control. _'And second, your words, while they are nice of you to say, do not help at all right now.'_

From the corner of her eyes, she could see her little brother cast a smug look at Shirou after hearing Sakura's words, no doubt feeling like he'd one-upped the older boy. Her red-haired crush was looking-, not quite irritated, but certainly closer to it than she'd ever seen him be before. And poor Sakura-chan saw nothing of the effect her words had.

"It's good to hear that." Shirou began, pulling her attention back to him, just in time to see him wipe the last traces of annoyance of his face. "It is very important to be polite and kind when dealing with others after all."

Sakura nodded at his words with a smile, and even Minori couldn't say much against that, to his obvious ire. Right, it really was time for her to change the subject away from the interactions between Sakura and Minori, and how frequent those were.

"But say, Shirou." She thus began. "How is it going at school at the moment?"

Alright, a cliché it was, but it was a useful cliché to divert attention away from a less-than-desirable subject.

Shirou himself in the meantime had not noticed Ayako's discomfort, still wondering why Minori seemed to dislike him, as he couldn't quite discover the cause. But such a thing was understandable, as there was no denying that he, as a certain black-haired, jewel-loving girl would proclaim often enough in the future, was an idiot.

Anyway, he accepted the change in subject easily enough.

"It is going rather well actually, Ayako." He said. "If I continue doing as I am now, then according to the teachers, I'll end first of the year at my school."

That got him the congratulations of both Ayako and Sakura, as well as Chiaki and Ryozo. Minori however didn't seem very pleased with the news.

"Really?" The boy questioned with a huff, seemingly trying to come up with an appropriate response. Ayako tensed up slightly, but Shirou couldn't ask her why as Minori continued talking. "The people at your school must be really stupid if _you_ can beat them. What, did you suck up to the teach-"

"Mitsuzuri Minori!" Chiaki cried angrily, getting up from her place to tower over her son. "Enough of this. What has gotten into you? Apologise to Emiya-kun at once."

Minori almost reeled back in shock, looking betrayed at his mother, who didn't budge at all, but merely pointed at Shirou, giving her son a hard stare.

"I... am sorry, Emiya-san." The boy gritted out after seeing that he stood alone in this. "It won't happen again."

"It's alright, don't worry about it." Shirou replied, not feeling insulted to begin with, yet also not able to suppress a feeling of slight vindictive pleasure at seeing the boy getting scolded.

Fortunately, the rest of the evening went well for Shirou and the others present now that Minori had toned down his hostility. The food that had been put on the table was fairly good, with Shirou giving it a nice seven-and-a-half when compared to his own.

Sakura was decidedly less generous, giving it a mere four compared to her Senpai's cooking. She was willing to admit she might be a bit biased though.

Ryozo and Chiaki proved to be good conversationalists even with teens after they had gotten over their teasing moods, and had spend the evening making the kids laugh at their silly antics. It was obvious they loved their children and each other a great deal.

Even Minori had behaved himself well, though that was more out of fear of further scolding and embarrassment than out of genuine mellowing, but it was good enough. Instead of sniping at Shirou as often as he could, as had been his plan beforehand, he spent his evening tending to Sakura's every whim. He sent smug looks to Shirou all the while, who wondered why the boy was doing that and why it was actually vexing him so much.

All good things had to come to an end though, and this was no exception. When the clock struck eleven, if really was time to go home for the two guests. Having already persuaded the plum-haired girl to let him walk her home, Shirou walked to the hallway first, having said his goodbyes already and now letting Sakura do the same in private.

Little did he know however that much more would be said than only goodbyes.

Ayako immediately drew Sakura in for a big hug. She didn't mind that at all though, to the contrary even. Ayako's hugs always felt really good.

Eventually, she dislodged herself from the embrace of the other girl, though it was reluctantly for the both of them.

"Thank you very much for the invitation, I really enjoyed the evening." Sakura smiled, straightening her clothes again. "Please tell that to your parents as well."

"Will do." Ayako laughed. "We all enjoyed your company as well."

Her parents and brother had already left for the kitchen to start washing the dishes, leaving the two girls alone, making it an excellent time for some girl-talk.

"I am sorry about Minori by the way. I'm sure he'll get over it in time and see that it is a lost cause, but if he doesn't, please let him down gently as soon as possible, before Shirou breaks him in two."

"Hah?" Sakura gasped, astounded and confused at what her dear friend was saying. "Was something wrong with Minori-san? What do you mean? Why would Senpai attack anyone?" The mere thought of her gentle Senpai hurting someone without a good reason was anathema to Sakura. He might fight those who were hurting others, but he wouldn't strike an innocent person, never!

Her confusion however only earned her a confused look back. At least, until the brunette palmed her face, muttering something about 'being made for each other'. Strange really, but then again, Ayako didn't seem to be making much sense this evening.

"Still, thank you again for the invitation. I assure you I truly enjoyed it a lot, maybe Senpai and I have to invite you and your family over sometime, as repayment." The plum-haired girl continued, choosing to move on from the previous topic, as she didn't really understand what that had been about.

To all ears, it might have sounded as just a few words of gratitude and goodbye, and in a certain sense, they were, but Sakura was currently building up towards an important matter.

"Disregarding the fact that this dinner was to repay the two of you, that sounds like a good idea." Ayako said in response, giving her customary big grin that Sakura had been fond of since the first time she had seen it. "It really was fun to have you over."

Deciding she wouldn't get a better opening than that if she wanted to talk about the important subject, Sakura brought up the matter she had been wanting to settle with the brown-haired girl for weeks now.

"Yeah, I saw how you looked at Senpai during dinner. You seemed to be having a lot of fun with that. P-Perhaps you 'like' him? As more than a friend I mean?"

The grin dropped from Ayako's face at once at those words, a slight note of panic and guilt coming to her face, as she took a shaking step backwards.

Sakura blinked, looking at the suddenly white-faced girl in concern and surprise.

"S-Sakura." Ayako stuttered out. "I-I am really s-sorry. I didn't mean to and I know you already have staked your claim and…"

' _Oh. That's the problem.'_ Sakura realised. Ayako thought Sakura would be mad about it.

Not an entirely baseless fear, as she would definitely have been angry if anyone else tried to get to cosy with her Senpai, but this was different. it was completely fine if it was Ayako. Sakura's decision had been made after all, and Ayako truly was the best girl available.

"Ayako." Sakura thus interrupted the brown-haired girl across from her, trying to sound as warm as she could, even as she felt hollow at what she was about to say. "It's fine."

In any other situation, she might have laughed a bit at the normally exuberant girl's slackjawed expression. The current situation was not amusing to her at all however, it was actually rather depressing.

Seeing that Ayako needed a bit more of an explanation, Sakura soldiered on, supressing the pain she felt at her own words. "I am fine with you pursuing Senpai."

There, she said it, she had gotten it past her lips. Now for some more background on that decision:

"I am aware that this might be a shock." She ground out. "And that it might not fit with my earlier behaviour, but like I said, I have no problems with you courting and getting together with him. I-I think you're a fantastic person, Ayako, and I think- no, I know that Senpai likes you too. I trust you."

Ayako herself had turned completely red at this point. "S-Sakura-chan…" She murmured, looking incredibly embarrassed. "What are you saying so suddenly? Are… Are you sure? Like, really sure?"

"Yes." Sakura confirmed, now struggling to keep the tears back, directing her gaze downwards to hide it from her friend. "I am sure. I know that you won't try to push me out of the picture, so, again, I have no problem with you getting in a relationship with Senpai."

Seeing that Ayako still wavered, she grinned a bit. "It will of course be a chore to get Senpai to realise that you like him as well, but I have faith you can manage it. You can also think about it of course. I don't need a confirmation or rejection right now, take as long as you need, but I would like you to tell me when you've made your decision. Just know that you have my blessing either way. You always had it."

And with another goodbye, she rushed outside of the room, unable to speak about such depressing matters any longer. In a few seconds, she was outside of the house, joining Shirou in the walk towards her home.

It had been a good evening altogether, despite the rather upsetting ending, but she had no one to blame for that except herself, so she wasn't allowed to complain. And for the rest, the party had included nice company, relatively good food, and she even had managed at last to tell Ayako that she was free to pursue Senpai.

Of course, she would have rather pursued him herself, but she knew she was utterly unworthy of him. With the worms inside of her and the impure urges and thoughts they gave her, she shouldn't even be in a fifty-mile radius from him, yet every day, she went back to him anyway.

The least she could do to make up for that was not getting in the way of better potential life-partners for him. So Sakura was willing to stand aside, and forever keep her distance from her Senpai. Ayako was free to pursue him.

* * *

It had been several minutes since Sakura had left, yet Ayako was still standing in the middle of the dining room, not capable of taking a single step or moving a single muscle. The events and words of the past few minutes kept playing over and over in her head, until she could only reach one final conclusion.

Sakura was willing to share Shirou with her!

It was the only thing that made sense. It fit perfectly. The willingness of the plum-haired girl to let Ayako hang around her crush was now finally explained. It wasn't because Sakura hadn't noticed that she had a crush on Shirou, it was because She. Was. Willing. To. Freaking. Share!

Ayako had never contemplated or considered that before. She knew it was theoretically possible to be in a romantic relationship with multiple people at once, but had never thought it might one day apply to her.

Ayako had been caught of guard completely by this. She had expected to have to compete with Sakura if she ever wanted to be with Shirou, not that Sakura would try to get her to share their mutual crush. And why did she have to be so nice when bringing that message?

How could she possibly pursue a relationship with Shirou now without feeling like an utter and complete jerk and backstabber? Her first real friend had now placed so much trust in her, so certain that Ayako wouldn't push her out of the picture, that there was no way that Ayako was ever going to betray that trust.

As such, it looked like the only possibilities left were either back off from Shirou completely, or woman up and share with Sakura.

...

When put that way, she couldn't deny the latter option did sound a whole lot better.

And when thinking about it, Ayako also could acknowledge that it wasn't like it would be a chore or punishment to share a boyfriend with a girl as nice and kind as Sakura. There would be no need for power plays or strife, not with that motherly girl around to sooth things over. She was definitely one of the best options available when searching for someone to share a polygamous relationship with.

' _B-but, what did she mean when she said that she l-liked me?'_ She then wondered, once more feeling a heavy blush come up. There was absolutely no question she resembled a tomato right now with all of the blood in her head and she could only pray her parents wouldn't come in any time soon. _'D-did she m-mean only like a friend, o-or perhaps…?'_

She didn't dare finish the thought. Sharing a boyfriend with just a friend was already strange enough for her to consider, but a full three-way relationship… That would take some getting used to, that was certain.

' _But it doesn't really sound bad, does it?'_ A treacherous, yet far larger than expected, part of her whispered, bringing to mind the hours spend together with Sakura, and how the girl had endeared herself more and more to her, and just how often Ayako was thinking of Sakura as cute and pretty, as well as the fact that the hugs they shared were really nice...

Rapidly shaking her head, Ayako discarded those thoughts before they would drive her into taking a poorly considered decision. Stalling them in the back of her mind for now, she decided to just go to bed. This wasn't a matter she should decide on right away, especially this late in the evening.

She knew she genuinely liked Shirou, as someone she wanted a romantic relationship with, and she-, well, if she was really, truly honest, if only for a few seconds, then she had to admit she wasn't averse to getting closer to Sakura either.

There! She said it. Out loud and everything, or at least in her mind. Now if that perverse part of her mind could leave her in peace, that'd be amazing.

But in all seriousness, she would have to think about this. Fortunately, Sakura said she would wait for as long as was needed for Ayako's decision. And of course, even if she did agree, then the task of getting through Shirou's thick skull was guaranteed to be quite a chore, even with the two of them.

It would be a lot of fun though, doing that with Sakura…

But no, she should not think on those matters now, not when she was mentally compromised by shock and exhaustion.

Attempting to keep her mind empty of all thoughts pertaining to relationships and bold proposals, Ayako went though the paces of going to bed; helping her family clean up, putting on her nightclothes, brushing her hair and teeth, and then settling into her blankets on her comfy futon.

Her sleep was dreamless, thankfully.

* * *

Urayasu, Shirou decided, while punching yet another criminal, would _never_ be his favourite city, not even close, and not even if it was the only city left on this world and all other worlds he now knew to be out there.

This uncharitable opinion did not come out of nowhere, nor was it unreasonable of Shirou to think such a thing. Many of the readers would think exactly the same upon seeing the place for themselves, and even most of those who called Urayasu their home would rather have lived elsewhere.

It wasn't a mystery either as to why they would want to move away. Even when forgetting about the kind of inhabitants this city was home to, it was simply filthy.

Rubble and waste were laying everywhere on the streets, with no one bothering to clean it up. Shirou had even spotted several people contributing to the mess, not caring about who saw them. Most of the public property in the city had been wrecked, such as bus stops, fountains, statues and government buildings in general. The air was filled with smog, and many people were wearing mouth caps to protect their lungs.

It was clear many people had given up completely on the city.

Still, Urayasu was large, and Shirou knew that most of the citizens were innocent of any real wrongdoing, as they just tried to live their lives. Some of them however seemed to have decided to spread their own misery around, causing no small amount of trouble for the poor city.

Granted, making others feel their own pain probably wasn't the main objective of most of the crooks he was apprehending, yet Shirou couldn't entirely shake the feeling that it did play a considerable role in causing the high crime-statistics. This city almost felt... evil.

It was shown in the city's underworld too. Instead of having several organised gangs spread out through the city, dealing in drugs, extortion and the likes, there were many small groups and individuals just roaming through the streets, doing whatever they wanted, indulging in their baser urges.

He had broken up countless brutal muggings, he had stopped drugs dealers from forcefully injecting children, teens, and young adults with whatever trash they were selling, he had chased off harassers and even prevented street fights from taking place. He even had to apprehend an officer or three for needless brutality, extortion and abuse. It had been shocking and confusing, and Shirou hadn't been sure on what to do.

Eventually, he had just hypnotised them to make them clean their acts. He hoped it would stick for a long time.

He'd even had to prevent several rapes from taking place, which was most definitely a first for him. He was ashamed to admit it, but Shirou had even drawn a blank for a few seconds when he saw such an act taking place for the first time, not properly understanding what had been happening with the man laying on the woman.

That confusion hadn't lasted long though, and the second he had realised what had been going on, he had swooped in and kicked the rapist from one end of the alley to the other. He had probably crippled the man with that move, but he didn't feel very guilty about it, not then and not now.

So all in all, while there might be fewer gangs in Urayasu, the crime-statistics were still through the roof like in few other cities in Japan.

It provided no small source of annoyance to Shirou, who didn't see any reliable way of stopping the majority of the crime in this city, except for manually patrolling the streets for weeks, maybe even months on end. All in all, a very inefficient way of fighting crime.

' _I never thought I'd see the day I would miss the gangs.'_ Shirou mused to himself, while once more knocking a man out with the flick of a finger when he saw said man come at him with a knife, clearly intent on threatening or harming him.

All in all though, despite the criminals not being congregated in convenient groups, he was still making quite a bit of progress all in all. He had already apprehended hundreds of criminals and saved dozens of people, so it was by no means time wasted.

Several problems had arisen though.

The first problem was an inevitable one for a hero; gratitude from the people that had been saved.

It wasn't something he had been forced to deal with before, as he had always just caught gangs that were doing their own thing in their own hide-outs. There had been no victims then who could be grateful to him, heck, most people didn't even know he existed because of the efforts of the police to keep him and his actions under wraps.

Now though, he was actively saving people from being mugged, assaulted, and even raped, tearing away their attackers from them and as such saving them from harm. Of course there would be plenty of gratefulness. That was only natural.

But unfortunately for him, he hadn't seen it coming, and as such was stumped on how to react.

It was not uncommon for the people he had saved during the past days to fall to their knees to thank him, or to want to shake his hand, and he did not know how to deal with that, the former being significantly more difficult than the latter of course.

It was in fact the most difficult with the women he had saved from rape. Now don't get him wrong, he understood perfectly well how horrible a crime it was, and he would happily stop it every time he saw it or heard of it, but the aftermath was still a bit difficult to deal with for him.

Every single one of the women had started crying afterwards, if they hadn't already been doing so. Again, completely understandable, but hard to deal with for someone like him, who had little to no experience with crying people.

He wasn't an emotionless idiot though, and he had promptly done what seemed best to him at the time, that being calmly sitting next to the women and doing his very best to comfort them with words and gestures, drawing on the little experience he had with Sakura.

It might not have been the best option available, but it was a whole lot better than just leaving right away. There was no way Shirou would ever leave someone in need of help alone, even if he wasn't sure on how to provide that help.

Fortunately, his way of helping them seemed to work, as the women had stopped crying pretty soon after he sat down next to them. He had already memorised it for future use too, as it seemed to be very effective.

He had been surprised however when two of the women, on two different occasions, had suddenly hugged him, feverishly whispering their thanks over and over again.

In the end though, the gratitude shown to him in the aftermath of his heroics was only a minor problem, if it could even be considered a problem and not just a part of the hero's job, much like cooking was also a part of it.

After the first few times, he had learned to simply accept their signs of thankfulness and then move on quickly, all the while saying as little as possible, as his young voice had shocked the first person he'd spoken with something fierce.

The second problem that had sprung up was unfortunately much harder to deal with: The criminals had begun to hide themselves better after only a few nights.

It actually wasn't all that hard to find them anyway, but it did in fact make things a bit more difficult. They weren't visible from the air when they were holing up after all.

He had theorised that the word of him taking down criminals must have spread, which was frankly surprising, as rumours hadn't travelled nearly as fast in the previous towns. Maybe it had something to do with the non-existence of gang-rivalries?

Anyway, he had seen that just flying over the city would be less effective than before, so he had adopted another approach. He had noticed some time earlier that if he altered his vigilante-outfit a tiny bit, and then put up his hood and walked with a bit of a slouch, he would seem be to a normal, if relatively well-off citizen walking alone at night. He did keep his mask on however.

He had begun doing so from the fifth night onward, and had started walking over the streets through hot-spots of activity, making the criminals come to him. It allowed him to take them out and deliver them to the police-force, which, save for the few bad apples he had already largely dealt with, had generally proven to be manned by good people, much to his relief.

This tactic worked surprisingly well, certainly better than just flying around would have worked. It was probably not all that common for someone in rather expensive looking clothes to be walking alone at night through the bad parts of the city, making him a very attractive target. He had been ambushed several times already that night, and now again.

For any normal human, it would have seemed as if his ambushers had sprung forth from the shadows themselves, coming out of their hiding places and surrounding him in an instant. Shirou however had long since seen and heard them.

"Give us your money, kid, and we might just let you go with only a beating." One of them rasped out, brandishing a base-ball bat.

"Yeah." Another agreed. "And while you're at it, why don't you give us those clothes, and yer trinkets, and whatever else you have with you, rich boy."

"And you'll let me go if I do so?" Shirou inquired, although he already knew the men had no such intentions. None of the other crooks he had faced today had been planning to actually let him go after all.

"You'd like that, wouldn't ya?" The one in front of Shirou laughed, balling his hand into fists and raising them in a motion that probably was intended to intimidate him. "But no, we changed our minds. We're just gonna beat ya to a pulp first, and then we'll take all of your belongings. If ya have enough shinies with ya tough, we might let ya live, if only just."

There were seven of them, which was a considerable number for simply mugging-group. It wasn't enough to worry him though, as he'd dealt with far worse than these scumbags. He was quite sure that even Taiga could have taken these men down.

No insult intended.

To Taiga of course.

With a quick jump, he was in front of the man who had spoken last, who was too busy gloating to his comrades to pay any attention to what Shirou was doing. An open-hand chop to the back of his neck brought him down instantly. In the same motion, Shirou spun around and delivered a kick to the midriff of the man now standing to his right, causing him to go down, wheezing for breath.

The third was promptly grabbed and thrown at another, after which both hit the wall of the alley they were standing in. They didn't get up afterwards.

It had barely taken a second, not giving the remaining three a chance to do more than widen their eyes and regret their life-choices for the half-a-second it took Shirou to reach them. Three punches, to the head, midriff, and neck quickly sent them to dreamland as well.

Standing amidst the fallen opponents, Shirou took a short moment to pat himself on the back for the restraint he had once more shown.

After yet another call to the police, where he was now becoming quite well-known, if the repeated requests to stay where he was were any indication, Shirou continued with his peaceful stroll through the city, all the while still keeping an eye out for anything related to his greater purpose here.

Up until now, he hadn't found even a single clue. Just like in Ise, it seemed every criminal smelling of magic had already left town, most likely to venture towards Fuyuki-City, where they had already been dealt with by him.

He would have believed this city to be a bust, just like Ise, if it hadn't been for one thing that kept him on the lookout for any strange smells, sights or happenings.

The smell of magic, and death.

It wasn't in any way similar to the smells he had picked up from the crooks he had arrested. Those smells had been from proper Magi, who were fully human and had Elements and specialisations that he could pick up on.

This particular smell however set his teeth on edge, with his instincts and even Mjolnir telling him something was very wrong with this place.

No, even if he had wanted to leave, he could not, for his very being would not have allowed it. Not before finding and eliminating the source of this smell.

Yes, he said eliminating. There was no doubt in his mind that whatever was causing this was both Not Human and definitely not innocent.

He had been searching for it since the day he had first set foot in Urayasu, even prioritising it over his main mission. Mjolnir had jokingly referred to it as a 'side-quest', though what that meant precisely, or why that was funny, Shirou did not know.

But as said before, until now, he'd had no success in finding the source. Urayasu was a big city after all, and Shirou had been hindered by criminals every step of the way.

Fortunately, he did have something that could point him in the right direction; missing person-reports.

According to those reports, that he had obtained through some less than legal means, the number of cases had nearly tripled in the past months, way beyond anything even Urayasu ever had to deal with.

To Shirou however, it was clear that there was something Magical behind it. Maybe another Magus who was now copying the ways of the ones Shirou had been hunting? Maybe it was a person of a mixed bloodline going after humans in order to obtain sustenance? Those with a mixed bloodline were a lot more frequent in Japan than in the rest of the world after all, for some reason, so it wasn't impossible.

Well, anyway, he'd better get on with the side-quest, there was still a lot of ground to cover after all, and the night wasn't getting any longer.

Shirou couldn't entirely suppress a groan of annoyance though when he saw people coming out of the shadows again, two in front of him and three behind, effectively trapping him inside an alley.

This was the ninth time today already, in only two hours. There had to be some kind of limit to how many criminals were allowed to live on one square mile.

Grumbling under his breath about stupid cities, Shirou straightened his back and took a deep breath, ready to get the inevitable pre-battle banter over with. Every criminal in Urayasu seemed to love the sound of their own voice, and there hadn't been a single fight up until now where there hadn't been some kind of bragging before the fight, usually followed by screams of pain.

But in the middle of that deep breath, he couldn't help but freeze in shock. The reason for it being simple yet complicated.

These crooks smelled like magic.

Continuing his breathing, Shirou now dedicated significantly more attention towards his opponents. They were potential leads to interrogate now, perhaps even the breakthrough he had been searching for.

' _It shouldn't be too difficult.'_ Shirou mused, looking them over. _'Being hypnotised doesn't give you special abilities, so they should be well within normal human capabilities.'_

He didn't expect the hypnosis to save him from the talking though, so he prepared himself for tuning out annoying voices…

When all five of his opponents suddenly started running towards him, silently, with only their heavy breathing audible in the alley. Besides, they were not only quiet, they were also quite fast, having crossed half the distance in a few seconds at most.

Resolving to take them more seriously now that they had proven to be more capable than the others, Shirou did not wait on the spot like he had done the previous times, but instead seized the initiative, jumping at the men in front of him.

Despite their unusual competence, his opponents clearly hadn't anticipated this, allowing him to land in between them and smack them over the head with his open hands, which should be more than enough to knock out even the toughest of normal humans.

Shirou turned around lightning fast, idly noticing the complete lack of shock in his remaining opponents' body language, before jumping at them. Three punches later, it was over.

Or at least, he had thought so.

After almost being compromised during his break-in in the police-station, by an officer than he should have heard coming, Shirou had resolved to not let himself be distracted again during his missions. He would remain vigilant, even when everything seemed safe.

It was this vigilance that allowed him to hear the footsteps behind him, indicating some of his opponents weren't as downed as he had believed them to be.

He leapt forward, creating some distance between him and his assailant, before turning around to see which of the crooks had managed to pick themselves up.

Now firmly in a combat-mindset, Shirou allowed himself only a moment of surprise when he saw that not just one of them, but all five had stood up again. He studied them carefully, wondering what made them so resilient, when...

Shirou once more felt shock course through him. He knew these people!

Not personally, but their faces were incredibly familiar anyway, and Shirou also knew why that was.

He jumped backwards again, creating some more space between him and his pursuers once more. He then reached into the pocket of his jacket, and pulled out a bundle of papers.

These were the missing-person-reports of the past three months. Quickly riffling through them, Shirou's eyes widened as his suspicions were confirmed.

The people in front of him were some of those among the missing persons.

Why were they here? Were they being hypnotised? Forced to abduct other people like they had been abducted? That made no sense. The Magi and their pet-criminals had always focused on homeless people and drug-addicts, people that wouldn't be missed. These people here would certainly be missed.

One of them in particular, Ehara Kageyasu, was a highly respected doctor, who was earning more with his profession than he ever would make with mugging people in back-alleys. He was just about one of the worst targets one could go for if the kidnapper wanted to keep a low profile. And yet, here he was, running at full speed towards Shirou, faster than man his age should be capable of.

Besides, Aonuma Nui should have very weak knees from years of volley-ball, making it impossible for her to run and jump like she was doing right now. Seriously, she should be in a wheelchair, not jumping at him with a feral snarl…

Letting go of the papers with one of his hands, Shirou used that hand to smack Aonuma back towards her comrades, making them tumble over each other in a way that would have been funny to behold if the situation hadn't been so strange.

He then put the papers back in his pockets and clenched his fists, preparing himself for a difficult fight. When he had thrown Aonuma backwards, she had ended up smacking on the ground head-first, with enough force behind it to crack open her skull if the normal laws human anatomy had anything to say about it. But such a thing had not happened.

Shirou took another deep breath through his nose, trying to identify the smell that was practically wafting from the people in front of him.

The only thing he could associate it with though, was death, corpses, and poorly maintained grave yards. But that didn't make any sense…

...

...

Shirou's jaw clenched, his eyes narrowed, and his fists were now clenched so hard his knuckles almost cracked. No, on second thought, that did make an awful lot of sense. Going by some of his father's stories, he now had a fairly good idea about what he was fighting at the moment.

Sparing a moment to pray he was wrong, Shirou looked closer at his opponents, now actually taking in the details. It was all in the teeth, nails, and complexion of the skin.

His hopes for his suspicions to be untrue were crushed when he noticed the fangs, claws, and unhealthy shine, indicating that these people were no longer human.

A Dead Apostle.

With that grim thought passing through his head, Shirou abandoned all notion of restraint and holding back. He had to kill these things fast, before their master would take notice of them getting damaged. The Dead always had a connection with their Master, but with luck, Shirou would be able to destroy them before the Master would notice anything.

Shirou went into the offense, hands crackling with lightning. A single jump brought him in front of the nearest opponent, and Shirou gave it a right hook, punching its head clean off its shoulders.

He then turned half to the right, crouching low to dodge a swipe with a claw, and lashed out with a high kick, sending his attacker and the one behind it flying into the opposite wall with such speed that they broke to pieces on impact.

Trying to reclaim the initiative, the last two charged straight at him, employing all of the increased strength and speed of the Dead. It proved useless though, as Shirou simply side-stepped their assault and then brought his fists down on their heads with enough strength behind it to reduce said heads to ash.

The Dead had been defeated, but the matter was far from over.

 _'To think that all this time, the origin of the smell and the cause of the disappearances was a Dead Apostle.'_ He thought to himself, quickly digging up everything his father had told him about these creatures.

The most important thing by far was that these things spread their condition by a mere bite, which made them capable of infecting entire towns in a matter of days at best and hours at worst. The fact that Urayasu hadn't been overrun yet, even after several months, indicated that this Apostle had some serious patience. It was probably trying to escape notice, which meant it was reasonably smart as well.

On one hand, that was good news, as it meant that the entire city was not in immediate danger, but on the other hand, it also meant that it was probably clever enough to hide itself and flee if Shirou waited too long with dispatching it. He would have to kill it as soon as possible.

'Cut off the head of the snake, and the body will wither'. It was an old saying that was perfectly applicable here. There were probably dozens of the dead running around in the city, but if he managed to kill their Master, he would effectively render them harmless, to be destroyed when the sun came up again.

For other people hunting things like this, such as most Executors and Enforcers, that would be easier said than done, as Urayasu was still a big city with many hiding places.

Not so much for Shirou, as he had his superior sense of smell to work in his favour.

It hadn't led him to the Dead Apostle at first, as the whole city smelled of that creature, but now that he had access to the remains of several of its familiars, he had a much better chance.

The familiars were connected to their Master with a Magical link after all, a link that Shirou could follow with his nose.

It was very faint, as was to be expected now that he had already destroyed the Dead themselves, but it was enough to get at least a general direction. One he immediately set about following.

Deciding now was no longer the time to walk around like an unsuspecting victim, Shirou threw off his hood and altered his outfit back to its proper vigilante state. Then, with a jump, he ascended to the top of the building on his left.

With a quick flick, Mjolnir was once more in his hand, the hammer now thrumming with power, clearly ready to fight against the first opponent of the Moonlit World they had ever faced together. Truly a memorable experience it would be.

And with that thought, Shirou launched himself into the sky,

Following the trail.

* * *

 **And that is that. The chapter ends here.**

 **That being said, some things of importance happened in this chapter. I will walk through them for a bit again, just to soothe my own nerves because I fear some readers might not have understood everything.**

 **First, we have little Illya getting a visit from mom and dad. Yes, those were really them, not just Servants or memories or anything like that, they were the actual Kiritsugu and Irisviel, who had been pulled back for a bit to spend some time with their daughter.**

 **Shirou has no luck finding clues related to his main mission in Ise, and gets news of swimming lessons when he returns.**

 **Dinner at Ayako's place, Minori has his own crush on Sakura and Shirou feels the stirrings of jealousy, without recognising what he feels. It is probably for the best though, as feeling jealous is completely unneeded. Sakura would never consider anyone but her Senpai.**

 **Poor Ayako completely misunderstands Sakura's words, though she does not reject the proposal outright, but instead actually finds herself considering it. Interesting…**

 **Shirou then hangs around in Urayasu, being generally unhappy with the place, and then stumbles upon a Dead Apostle.**

 **And then there's the author's note, wrapping it all up.**

 **Now, some of you might not be entirely happy with what I have done for Illya, but I felt she deserved something like this, so here it is. I don't write drama all that well, so it's better for me if Illya doesn't hate Shirou when the latter forces his way into the Einzbern-castle later on in the story.**

 **Also, I will now attempt to explain just what it means for Shirou to become like Thor. Okay, I said he's going to become a god, and that's true, but please all keep in mind that he's not going to be a Type Moon god. He is not reliant on the Mana in the air, nor on the prayers and believes of humans.**

 **He had some similar powers to the Type Moon gods, such as Authority, but let it be known that the Chains of Endiku aren't going to be some sort of kryptonite for him. Please remember this and don't start any discussion about whether Shirou should or shouldn't be bound in those chains. The chains can absolutely bind him, and scale with his divinity, but they can't cut off his powers.**

 **He is powered by the Shirou-Force, formerly known as Thor-Force and Odin-Force, one of the fundamental powers of the Omniverse. It is impossible for anything in the Nasuverse to cut him off from that power, no matter what they do. Binding him is still possible though. Especially with that Chain.**

 **He's still compatible enough with humans to somewhat pass for one of them if one doesn't look to closely. And reproducing with humans is also very much possible.**

 **Special thanks once more to** **hollowichigo12** **for helping me write this story, and for the many ideas he has given me, both for this chapter and the ones to come. Also my thanks for giving me the idea for the omake that you can find below.**

 **I have at last decided by the way that I'm going to keep things simply when it comes to Shirou's vigilante name, I'll name him Rakurai (my thanks to** **CrazyLich79** **), which means lightning bolt or lightning strike. It will be given to him by the Police of Fuyuki-City, and later be made public when they can no longer hide his involvement in the arrest, now that he is also going to other cities.**

 **That covers it, now for the promised Omake about walnuts and grandfathers.**

* * *

 **Omake (canon if you want it to be, it does not influence the story an awful lot.)**

Jubstacheit von Einzbern was a callous and cruel man, who regularly did things that would make most civilised readers throw up at the very thought of doing it themselves.

It was not out of sadism or some twisted feeling of revenge though. No, for Old Man Acht, it was all about necessity. He was the head of an ancient Magus-family after all, holding fabled riches, the best Homunculi-creators, and one of the strongest specialities in the world, that being Alchemy, in his very hands. There was no way he would be able to keep his position if he weren't a right bastard.

Fortunately, being a rotten bastard had always come easy to him. He had never lost a second of sleep over heartlessly throwing the failures of the Homunculi in the recycle room, or over sacrificing his metaphorical daughter to a crazy War over a, though he was not aware of this, defect Grail, or even over planning to use his granddaughter for the exact same purpose.

It would be incorrect to say he delighted in being cruel, but it could not be denied he did sometimes feel empowered by being so ruthless against enemy and ally alike. Who was going to tell him off after all? He was free to do what he wanted in the pursuit of bringing the Third Magic back to the Einzbern.

Inside his own family, he would tolerate no disrespect or disobedience, demanding loyalty from everyone, both artificial and real. He would never hesitate to stomp on anything that seemed like insubordination or mockery.

And that was why he was currently staring at a walnut, innocently laying on his desk, as if mocking him and laughing at him from its lower position. Jubstacheit could not properly understand how a nut could be looking at him with so much challenge, but it was clear that this walnut needed to be destroyed, for his peace of mind if nothing else.

He had torn this walnut out of the hands of the very granddaughter he was planning on sacrificing in the coming war, which seemed to be beginning sooner than anticipated. She had been holding it in her little hands during her lessons, sometimes looking at it with a smile.

Upon closer observation, he had discovered an 'E' carved in the surface of the little brown thing, the meaning of which he had understood right away.

He had been incensed. How dare she mock them all like that by carrying around something related to that traitor? Did she not have any respect at all for the family as a whole? Making them all seem ridiculous by constantly reminding them of when they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

He had marched over at once, demanding she hand over that walnut. He had expected protest, for her to try to keep it, but to his surprise, she had looked at the walnut for a few moments, and had then handed it over gleefully, a very unsettling smile adorning her face.

And that was how he came to be here, looking at a simple walnut with way too much anger and hate for it to be in any way healthy or normal. Just looking at it almost gave poor Jubstacheit an aneurism, it was too much.

So with a hate-filled yell, he picked up the walnut and threw it at the wall with as much force as he could put behind it…

Only for it to bounce back right against his head.

"Ow!" He yelled, both out of shock and out of pain. His hand flew to his head to cradle it, while the walnut ended up back on the desk in its previous position. It had somehow bounced from his skull right back unto its former spot.

Jubstacheit looked at it incredulously, before he quickly grabbed a hammer he still had laying around from a recent redecoration and slammed it down unto the walnut, confident that would be enough to break it into pieces.

A harsh crack sounded, the crack of wood, making him believe at first that he had succeeded. However, when he looked at the walnut again, he saw to his astonishment that it was still unmarred.

It turned out it was the _hammer_ that had broken from the force of his strike! The head had been snapped clean off.

But where was it then-?

"Thunk!"

Jubstacheit dropped the useless piece of wood in his hand and grabbed his head in pain again after the hammerhead, that had been launched straight into the air apparently, came down on him.

"What the hell?" He hissed, now feeling less hateful and more pissed off. That walnut was now openly defying him, hurting his head with brutal tactics.

It had proven that physical force would be ineffective against it, but there was no reason for concern yet, as he still had Magecraft at his disposal in order to get rid of it.

"Laden Brechen!" He shouted, pointing his finger towards the offending object, putting as much power as possible into it. The nut had proven itself an adversary worthy enough of that.

The spell impacted both the walnut and his desk. To Jubstacheit's shock and consternation, the walnut remained unaffected once more, while it was his desk that seemed to take all the punishment. The top splintered apart under the power of his spell, and the underlying drawer was shot away…

Right against his jaw.

"Akasha's Root!" The golem swore, now cradling his jaw in immense pain. First his forehead, then the top of his head, and now his jaw as well? This thing had it out for him. It was clearly creepier than he had anticipated.

But even now he still had the old wisdom to fall back on. As his own creator had always said to him: 'When in doubt, kill it with fire'.

Very wise words that applied here very well. So Jubstacheit promptly sprayed fire at the walnut, his desk would have to be replaced anyway, so he didn't hold back at all.

It should be enough to reduce the damned thing to cinders. Who knew walnuts were that hard to destroy…

"Fwoom!"

Jubstacheit jumped back like a frightened deer the moment the flames touched the devilish thing, as a huge torrent of flames suddenly burst forth from its position. And then, just as fast, it was also gone again.

Old Man Acht rapidly inspected his office for any damages, hoping nothing valuable had fallen prey to the flames. It seemed he was lucky this time though, as the only things damaged were his desk and the rope holding up the chandelier.

The chandelier, that was hanging right above his _head_!

Not even bothering to look up, the white-haired man made to get away from where he was standing, trying to jump to the side. It was too late though, and with a thundering crash, the chandelier came down upon him.

It was safe to say Acht was in more pain right now than he'd ever been in before. His whole body ached, with his head being the worst of all, after all the abuse it had suffered.

It was worth it though, for he had finally gotten the better of that blasted walnut…

"Tonk."

Jubstacheit almost burst into tears when he felt something bounce off his head. Something very familiar.

Indeed, it was the walnut.

He could only stare at it for a few moments, before he put that famed intellect of his to work, and worked out the most brilliant plan ever, if he did say so himself.

He reached out and grabbed to walnut from its place, and then walked out of his office, his stride that of a man with a purpose. Everybody looking at him could only wonder about his objective and his wounds, throwing themselves out of his way in order to not get trampled.

It was a few minutes later that Acht reached Illyasviel's chambers. Without knocking, he entered, causing the three girls inside to jump in surprise. He paid no attention to their activities though, and outright ignored the older-looking ones in favour of focusing on Illyasviel.

"Here." He said, his voice emotionless, holding the accursed thing out to her. "Take this and keep it out of my sight."

His piece said, he walked away immediately after she'd taken it from his hand, vowing to never again pay any attention at all to any kind of walnut, and to order everyone in his family do to the same.

Except Illyasviel. She now had the task of keeping that cursed object under control.

 **Omake end.**

* * *

 **Let us read forever.**

 **Ted out.**


	11. Making Progress

**Making Progress**

"Could you pass me the salt, please?"

With a smile on his face, detective Osaki Koyo handed the salt over to his faithful and trusted partner, Yomaura, who thanked him with a nod and a smile of her own.

"Taya-san, can I have the salt next?" A glance to the side revealed his youngest daughter, Osaki Chiho, who was holding out her hand towards the red-haired woman, who obediently passed it along.

An involuntary sigh escaped him at the sight of his youngest now putting way too much salt on her food, no doubt spoiling its taste quite badly. But he supposed Chiho wouldn't care. She allegedly liked the taste, though he suspected it was also because she wanted to emulate his partner.

Yomaura was perhaps the only close female role-model his girls had, so it was to be expected they'd try to take after her. Or at least, that was what he had been told by the psychiatrist when the subject had come up.

Not that it was bad of course. If you asked him, there was no other woman in the police-department or even in the entire city who could be a better example for his daughters to follow. She was dedicated, powerful and confident, with a strong moral compass and a penchant for hard work.

A tendency to sprinkle salt over her food was already an harmless tick, but when compared to all of her good traits, it truly disappeared into nothing.

Everything was better than having his daughters take after _that_ woman…

"Grrr!"

It seemed that not everyone considered it harmless though, as Suki looked like she was about to blow her top at the sight of her little sister ruining her food. There were few things that could set his dear eldest daughter off, but mindlessly spoiling the food she'd spent so much time and energy on was definitely one of those things.

Being a composed and calm girl, with long black hair and the typical Japanese beauty about her, Suki always looked and acted the part of the proper schoolgirl. Nothing in the world could set her off, though there were a few... notable exceptions.

"Imouto! You dunce." Suki hissed through clenched teeth, while grabbing said sister's hand in mid-motion. "Don't do that. I agreed on cooking today because you asked me to, but you shouldn't spoil it with salt. You promised you wouldn't."

Chiho started, her mouth taking on the shape of an 'O', before she practically threw the salt across the table, as if trying to hide the incriminating evidence.

"Aah, Onee-san. I am so sorry!" She wailed. "I was thinking about other things and I didn't remember. And when I saw Taya-san with the salt shaker, I just acted upon my first urge to take and use it. I'm really, really sorry, please forgive me." Chiho had grabbed her sister's hands during the last part, looking up at her with dewy eyes that seemed to plead for forgiveness.

It would seem to be an unusually strong reaction from both of the girls for such a minor occurrence. It had to be noted however that Suki did not like cooking at all.

It was an absolute shame, because she was fantastic at cooking. Her meticulous way of working, attention to detail, and perfectionism made every meal made by her hands a feast on its own, making all who tasted it praise her fervently.

Still, Suki could not be persuaded into cooking more often. The only one who could convince her with any surety was Chiho, but the brunette understood very well that abusing that privilege would only take it away from her.

Chiho _never_ added salt to her sister's dishes, which was probably why Suki willing to believe her when she said it hadn't been her conscious intention to mask the food's taste this time.

As such, the outcome of the little spat was that Suki forgave her little sister. She always did, and Osaki had learned early on that his daughters were very privy to drama, even when talking about small issues, blowing everything way out of proportion. 'It was all for the show', they had told him when he had asked.

A woman's thing perhaps? But Yomaura wasn't prone to it, and neither were the many other women he knew…

"Senpai! Watch out." The voice of his partner tore Osaki out of his thoughts immediately.

He looked at her with a questioning look, only to find her staring at his plate in front of him, looking like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or to shake her head in disappointment.

He cast his gaze downwards as well, but saw nothing but his plate of food. Yomaura didn't let up on her stare though, prompting him to study it more closely as well.

That was when he realised that it wasn't his plate at all. Rather, it was Chiho's plate.

Looking up in confusion, Osaki saw his youngest daughter shuffling food into her mouth from a plate that he immediately recognised as his own. The little minx had swapped their dinner when he had been absorbed in thought.

"Chiho." He exclaimed aggrieved, watching as she stuffed her mouth so full that her cheeks bulged as if she were a squirrel. "You can't just steal my food after ruining your own."

Especially not on an evening that Suki had been cooking. Chiho liked her sister's cooking a lot, but he did as well, maybe even more than her. Probably not, but that was not the point.

His youngest daughter completely ignored him however, and Suki was completely merciless after witnessing his plight.

"That's what you get for not paying attention during dinner." She told him with a cool voice, carefully looking away from him to convey an air of uncaring elegance and beauty. "I believe we have told you often enough not to dream while we are having a meal. Now you must bear the consequences of not listening to us."

Seeing that his own offspring was now betraying him, one stealing his food while the other endorsed, nay, actively supported it, Osaki turned towards his faithful Kouhai, hoping for at least some aid for his poor, viciously attacked self.

It was not to be however. Yomaura only cast him a stern look, not saying anything, pulling her plate closer to her as if to protect it from someone. Whether that someone was Chiho or him, he didn't know, but it was clear either way that no help would be coming from that direction either.

"How cruel." He proclaimed towards Yomaura, throwing his arms wide in a dramatic motion. "To aim such a powerful glare at someone as innocent as I am, while letting the real culprit here go free. That's not at all what I trained you to do, my Kouhai. Have you no mercy for the downtrodden?"

"Not if those poor 'downtrodden' spent the better part of the meal dreaming about some stuff or the other." His Kohai told him heartlessly, her cool look now freezing over. "You should have stopped Chiho-chan yourself if you wanted to keep your dinner. And no, you aren't getting my meal. Suki-chan made this for me, and me alone, because she loves me so much."

Ignoring Sukei's embarrassed squeak, both adults looked into each other's eyes. One seemingly depressed, the other challenging.

Eventually however, both failed to keep up their stoic expressions, as their burst out into giggles that soon evolved into peals of laughter. And while the detectives were busy laughing helplessly, Chiho only looked at them for a moment before going back to eating, while Suki shook her head, bringing a hand to her mouth as if in indignant shock, though mostly to hide a smile of her own.

"Alright, alright, I won't say anything." Osaki grinned eventually, after having recovered. "I'll just have to wait until sweet, talented Suki deigns it worthy of her time to cook again."

"That will be tomorrow if you stop behaving so stupidly right now." The aforementioned girl huffed, having regained control of her facial muscles, allowing her to put up an annoyed expression again. "Really, I can't believe you two are respected detectives, Otou-san, Taya-san. You two are always so childish here at home."

"But that's at home." Yomaura pointed out, still lightly wheezing. "I agree that giggling and messing around is not the correct behaviour for when we are working, so we don't do that at the precinct. We save all that for you and Chiho, our most precious little girls."

"Besides." Osaki added, watching in amusement as Yomaura's last comment elicited another embarrassed shout from his eldest daughter, "If we actually started behaving like this at work, our dear colleagues would either all get heart-attacks from the shock, or they would beat us up and interrogate us about who we are and where we have left the real Osaki and Yomaura."

"Agreed." Yomaura grinned. "I suppose our 'unnatural work-ethic' has given us a bit of a reputation at the precinct. How dare we be so motivated while working as detectives at the Fuyuki-City law-enforcement?"

The last part was said with heavy sarcasm. Osaki couldn't help but huff in agreement, a lopsided smile adorning his face. Suki's expression became slightly downcast, while Chiho readily absorbed every word that was spoken, even going as far as to stop eating to pay proper attention.

Food might have been important to her, but she had always had the dream of following in his father's footsteps when it came to picking careers, so any information about his job was prioritised over meals, and over sleep, and over bathing.

Osaki really was of two minds about it. On one hand, he thought it was fantastic that one of his daughters was so incredibly motivated and enthusiastic about something, even though it caused her to neglect her health at times.

On the other hand, he couldn't help but worry about her. His line of work wasn't particularly dangerous, with him only being a detective, but it involved a lot of very dark things. Humans were capable of incredible cruelties when sufficiently motivated, and he didn't want to expose his dear Chiho to the brutalities of his job.

Not now, when she was only a child indulging in a hobby and attempting to emulate the role-models in her life, and, if he was very honest with himself, not later either. A small part of him would rather have she didn't strive to be like him at all.

But that was his overprotective father-side speaking. He was mostly just proud of his hardworking daughter, always making sure to praise her for her work every time she came to him to present something she had worked on, whether that be a puzzle, a detective book she had solved before reading the conclusion or even her own observations on public cases she had found on the internet. Positive feedback was important for children, and he had been very grateful when Yomaura had seamlessly picked up on that.

"In all seriousness though." He continued, his joyous mood fading now. "Most of the time, the laziness of our colleagues aren't something to laugh about. On the contrary, things are often very depressing."

"Quite." Yomaura agreed with a sigh. "Seeing what people do to each other is never fun, and it doesn't help at all when most officers who are supposed to combat the evil are too lax to get of their asses and do their jobs. We barely make any progress at all these days."

"But you have had a lot of success these past months." Suki protested, clearly not happy with her parents being sad, rising from her seat to run to her room. A few seconds later, she came back to the table, holding a newspaper, a very familiar newspaper.

Osaki only just held back a grimace when he saw it was the paper that reported on the recent string of victories of the Fuyuki-City Law-Enforcement. It had entire articles praising the brave officers of Fuyuki-City, and even more interviews with people expressing their happiness.

It would have been a very nice gesture and a real confidence-boost, if it hadn't been for the fact that it hadn't been law-enforcement making all of that progress, but rather an elusive vigilante.

So in the end, Suki's gesture of holding on to that paper and now showing it to them again, well-meaning and kind as it was, didn't help, as she was praising the ever-elusive vigilante rather than them. Not that he would tell her as such of course. The vigilante was still being kept a secret by his higher-ups.

How should he react to this though?

"Alright. First of all, please don't just leave the table while we are having dinner, Suki, it is impolite." Osaki began, throwing in the rebuke more to win himself some time to think than out of actual anger or indignation. "Second, why do you still have that paper? Isn't it supposed to be from weeks ago?"

"I'm sorry, Otou-san." Sukey said, looking down despondently at his first words, accepting the admonishment. "But I just had to get this. It is the paper from the day you and Taya-san came home and told us that the gangs of the city were all gone. I just wanted to keep a memento of the day, as you both looked so happy."

"Ooooh! That's so sweet of you, Suki-chan." Yomaura crowed in delight, rising from her seat to scoop the girl up in a hug.

Suki spluttered in indignation, frantically trying to free herself from the much stronger woman's embrace, who was happily praising her.

Osaki agreed completely, it was a very sweet thing to do, and completely in line with Suki's normal behaviour. She really was a kind girl, but she often had problems expressing herself, at least with words. As such, she preferred to let her actions do the talking for her instead.

Yomaura's comments did not go appreciated by everyone though. Next to Osaki, Chiho blew her cheeks out in anger at being classified as second-best daughter by her role-model.

She understood of course that it was less a matter of favouritism and more of enthusiasm, and that Taya-san would never pick a favourite, but seeing her sister get praised while she wasn't still stung at her pride.

She would have to show Taya-san that she could be just as amazing as Suki. Her Onee-san was fantastic, but she could also be fantastic when she wanted, and she would prove it to them.

But what was the best way to go about it?

Based on the circumstances, Chiho could only assume Taya-san had proclaimed her elder sister to be the best daughter because Suki had had the clarity of mind to keep a memento of a very happy moment.

In short: Her Onee-san was very smart, so that made her a good girl.

But that was okay. Chiho herself also had something up her sleeve to show she was clever as well. Outo-san and Taya-san would be blown away by her insight.

"Yes, very good, Onee-san. Keeping that newspaper was indeed a brilliant idea." She started, before promptly dropping the bomb she had been sitting on for weeks now, right in the middle of the conversation. "But the articles are still somewhat wrong. After all, they make no single mention of the vigilante, Rakurai, helping the police."

Chiho, being a nice, but somewhat impulsive child, just sprouted the words out, momentarily forgetting that if the vigilante's existence was still supposed to be a secret. A secret that wasn't known to the majority of the people in Fuyuki-City, who had no reason at all to doubt the official stories.

Even Chiho herself, the one who had discovered something was wrong, hadn't had any concrete reason as to why she hadn't believed the statements of the police. She just had an inkling some time ago that something was wrong, and had started her own little investigation.

And indeed, the longer she had investigated the situation, the more things just didn't add up anymore. Contradictions appeared everywhere, time-lines were full of obvious faults, statements were full of holes, and so on. Eventually, she could only conclude that whoever had been in charge of making the cover story had been really bad at their job.

Far from being discouraged or scared away by the sheer scope of the secret she had been unearthing, Chiho had thrown herself even deeper into her private investigation.

She had seen however that this was way out of her league. She was not even in high school yet, and no matter how smart she was, there would be things that she didn't understand or could not properly connect.

That particular problem however had an easy solution. She had just asked the help of her brilliant Onee-san, who was in fact in high school, and was super intelligent and always knew everything.

And sure, Suki had been unwilling at first to aid Chiho in her childish pursuit, but after Chiho had showed her the evidence that she had already found, she had readily joined the investigation.

Unfortunately though, they hadn't been able to find any answers at all as to what really happened, but only managed to add more questions to the mountain they already had.

Eventually, they'd shamefully resorted to looking through their father's papers when he had taken a few of them home, despite knowing they were violating quite a few house-rules doing that. The papers didn't contain all that much information, but it had been enough for Chiho to draw a conclusion.

There was a real-life superhero taking down the criminals in Fuyuki-City.

Onee-san had been disbelieving when she had told her of the theory, but after reviewing everything herself, Suki could only agree with her that it was not the police who had been taking down so many criminals recently.

Chiho had been all for going to their father at once, to confront him about the issue, but Suki had stopped her short the moment the suggestion had left her mouth. Her elder sister had claimed that it was clearly a secret, and that they weren't supposed to reveal secrets that were related to their father's work. That was dangerous. They had already messed up when looking into his paperwork, there was no reason to make things even worse.

And after some more heckling, Chiho had agreed to keep it quiet, if only because she realised that father would be disappointed with her if she revealed that she meddled too much in things that he didn't want her to meddle in.

The girls had decided together to keep their knowledge just as secret as the police was keeping it, with the last thing they said about it being Suki telling her that the correct term for such a person was 'vigilante', not superhero.

After that, they'd buried the matter and decided to not speak of it again...

Not speak of it again?

…

' _Oops?'_

 _..._

Osaki couldn't believe his ears. When had his youngest daughter discovered that secret, and how?

This wasn't something she could have pieced together from a few articles. Uncovering the truth about the vigilante would require extensive research and access to all kinds of information. Information Chiho was not privy to, he was sure of that.

And what was up with that name;

Rakurai?

Lightning Strike?

It did fit, he supposed, but again, coming up a name like that, one that described the vigilante's MO so well at that, required intel that Chiho should have no way of getting.

Had she gone behind his back and looked at his paperwork? They had never done such a thing before, and he usually left everything in his study, where his daughters knew not to come.

But how had she figured it out then?

Before he could ask though, he was cut off by Suki, who had a strangle large smile on a face, and spoke in a voice so artificially cheerful that he almost cringed just hearing it.

"Ah! Ignore her, Otou-san, Taya-san. She has watched too many of those anime series and read too many comics these past months. You know how she is when she gets enthusiastic about something, always finding ways to make everything sound cooler than it truly is. Of course there is no vigilante."

And as his eldest daughter kept talking, Osaki realised that she had been in on this too. Her rather poor and obvious attempts at damage control were proof enough of that.

Both of his daughters now had critical and very secret information in their possession, deduced all by themselves.

He would have been proud, if it wasn't for the fact that it presented such an enormous headache.

Osaki knew the girls would stay silent on the matter if properly admonished, but if _they_ had figured out the truth, it was likely that _others_ could do so as well. Others he didn't have any influence over and could very well have malicious intentions with that knowledge.

Making eye-contact with his Kouhai, he saw that she had reached the same conclusion as he had. He gave a small motion with his hand, indicating she was free to take charge on this.

"That's quite enough, Suki-chan." Yomaura said bluntly, interrupting the girl in her ramblings. "It is clear enough that you are both in on this, you and your sister. And for quite a long time already if I'm not mistaken."

The high schooler let out a surprised gasp, looking like she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Which was not entirely inaccurate, considering the circumstances.

"How did you find that out?" She asked with a small voice, looking incredibly put out that her diversion tactics hadn't worked.

"Because you normally never ramble that much." Chiho responded dryly, looking from him to Yomaura with a sheepish expression. "Is there any chance you can blame just me for all of this? I dragged Onee-san into this against her will, so it isn't her fault."

Suki turned her head so fast upon hearing those words that Osaki feared momentarily that she had gotten a whiplash from it, her expression suggesting she vehemently disagreed with Chiho taking all of the blame.

"No, you dunce." She hissed through clenched teeth. "I joined in with as much enthusiasm as you when you came to me with your suspicions. I am going to take my share of the blame and you are going to sit down and accept that."

"But you always looked so reluctant during our investigations." Chiho protested, looking incredibly miffed at her sister's refusal to go along with her plans to proclaim herself as the only guilty person in the house. "And you never would have investigated if I hadn't brought it to your attention."

"That was only for the show. I liked doing the research and connecting the clues with you." Suki murmured, demurely looking away and losing her momentum for a moment, before lifting her head again, resolutely staring Chiho in the face, expression indomitable. "And I would have figured it out myself after a while, I mean, it's not that would have been difficult, with those horrible and obviously rushed cover stories in the news."

"You liked doing the research with me?" Chiho squealed in delight, also temporarily distracted, before she too realised that was not important at the moment. "I mean, no! It was me who brought that to your attention, and it was me who wanted to find out what was behind it. You would never have looked if I hadn't insisted on it."

"Maybe not, but when I joined you, I did my fair share of work. It was me who discovered the recurring clues at every crime-scene after we looked into father's papers after all. You know, that they always strike at night, that they burn the power cables, that the entire gang is knocked unconscious instead of killed or just tackled to the ground." Suki responded heatedly, leaning forward with her hands on the table, looming over the seated Chiho. "Someone ditsy like you could never figure that out by herself."

"Alright, I'll give you that." Chiho huffed, not reacting to the insult at all. "But I was the one who found out about the same thing happening in other cities now, which really confirmed our suspicions about a third party being involved. I really love the internet by the way."

"Yes, but…"

Osaki watched somewhat bemused as his daughter spilled everything right in front of him without any sort of prodding from him or Yomaura.

He noticed his partner leaning over towards him, bringing her face close to his in order to whisper into his ear without the girls overhearing anything:

"Do you think they actually forgot we are standing right here?" She whispered, looking as bemused as he felt, watching the girls trying to take all of the blame for their mishap, while simultaneously praising and insulting the other.

"Probably." He responded gruffly, his mind working furiously to find an acceptable solution to the mess he had inadvertently found himself in.

Clearly, the cover stories that had been made up to hide the vigilante's existence weren't adequate in the slightest if two teenage girls had seen right through them with minimal effort.

"Shall we break them up then?" Yomaura continued, looking way too amused for the situation. "We'd probably find out more from directly asking questions at this point. I mean, it's not as if they are hardened criminals actively working against us."

"I suppose not." He replied. "And let's hope they'll never become such. They wouldn't last a second in a real interrogation as they are now."

Seeing his Kouhai nod and look away, Osaki rose from his seat.

He suddenly and harshly cleared his throat in order to remind the girls of his presence. It worked like a charm, with Suki, Chiho, and even Yomaura jumping like frightened deer at the sound.

His partner only cast him an annoyed glance, to which he responded with an amused look, but his daughters seemed to go through a lot of expressions. They simultaneously went through shock, then surprise, followed by understanding, embarrassment, and finally sheepishness.

It was very amusing.

Nevertheless, they had violated the rules of the house. He would have to step up and be the authority-figure of the family.

"I hope you are well-aware of what it is that you have done wrong, and why it was wrong." He started in a tone as stern and disappointed as he could make it. "Not only have you meddled in things I have forbidden you to meddle in, but you even looked into my paperwork to help you with that."

The girls let their heads hang in shame, avoiding all eye-contact.

"Well?" He asked harshly, his daughters flinching at the sound. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

Suki and Chiho glanced at each other, seemingly communicating, before Suki lifted her head to face him. She took a deep breath, shuffling with her feet all the while, before speaking very fast:

"Well,atfirstweonlysawdiscrepanciesintheofficialstorythatwasbroughtoutconcerningthegreatestpoliceeffortin years, and we wanted to investigate and then we discovered actual secrets and a vigilante and we got carried away and that's how we got here."

She said it all in one breath, finishing her sentence by sucking in a breath. After panting for a few moments, Suki lowered her head again, clearly expecting to be punished.

"I can understand curiosity as a motive, though you carried it way too far." Osaki began, speaking slowly as he weighed his options. "I cannot punish you for taking interest in strange happenings in the city, but the fact remains that you are now in possession of very sensitive information, as well as being guilty of going through the papers of a federal officer, although I will admit that it is also partially my fault for leaving those at home."

Once more the only answer he received was shuffling of feet and heads lowering even further. No doubt they were expecting dire consequences and harsh lectures. "You will not be punished however."

The heads of both of his daughters shot up to give him a confused look, but before they could speak, he went on. "There is just no use. Some actions are just beyond what you can reprimand your children for. This was an actual crime that you committed, and while I won't arrest you, I can only urge you to think about what you have done, and to realise that it was a mistake to act as you two did. I am very disappointed in you both."

Yomaura, perhaps finding his words to be enough punishment for now, interrupted him, asking the downtrodden girls for a list of things they had discovered and how they had discovered them. The girls, eagerly to comply, immediately listed off everything they had done. It served to set Osaki's mind greatly at ease.

Nothing they had discovered was extremely sensitive, and the leaks they had found could be patched up with little effort. It would be something he and his Kouhai would have to look into as soon as possible. It seemed that, despite the big scare they just received, the situation hadn't gone all that far out of control yet.

After the girls had told them everything they knew, Osaki sent them to bed. He didn't reckon anyone was hungry anymore and he had a lot that he needed to discuss with his Kouhai in private.

"Do you think I have been too soft on them, Yomaura? He asked her several minutes later, washing the last of the dishes left from the meal. "I know they barely did anything wrong if one looks at it objectively, but letting them off without any actual punishment…"

"Senpai." She said firmly. "Don't worry about things like that. Chiho and Suki are very well-behaved, emphatic, and kind girls, who absolutely hate it when you are angry with them. I do not doubt they are already beating themselves up over this in their rooms. Further punishing them will not add anything."

Osaki hummed, before ultimately agreeing with her assessment. "When you put it like that, I would almost say I have to set them at ease." He said, half-jokingly, but also half-not.

"You do that, Senpai." Yomaura agreed, putting away the last plate in the drawer. "But do that tomorrow. As you said, you can't let them off too easily, and besides, we have a lot of ground to cover tonight."

Osaki grunted in agreement, following his partner as she walked out of the kitchen, ascended the stairs and entered his private study, where he had a desk and several cabinets filled with office-supplies.

Normally, he would have been opposed to talking about sensitive topics at home, preferring to save it for the precinct, but this could not wait.

"So Senpai." Yomaura started, taking a seat in the chair across from his desk. "What do you make of this? And what are we going to do about it?"

"What I make of this?" Osaki parroted. "Nothing good. The fact that people were able to figure this out is disastrous, even if it were only the girls. We have kept Rakurai a secret for a reason, we can't afford to have that secret get away from us while we are unprepared."

"You don't have to tell me. After riding on the vigilante's successes as we have, we can't have it become known that we only did clean-up. It would reflect incredibly bad on the police if the public finds out we basically lied to them. People would no longer rely on us."

"There's only one thing to do then, though I dislike the option a fair bit." Osaki said, taking a seat behind the desk. "We must bring the news out ourselves, yet we must also bend the truth a great deal."

"Bend the truth?" Yomaura inquired, cocking her head to the side. "I do not like the sound of that. What exactly is 'bending the truth' in this situation?"

"We shall tell the press of Rakurai's existence, as soon as possible, but we will heavily imply that they have only helped us, instead of doing all the work themselves."

"Downplaying the vigilante's achievements?" She summarised, bringing a hand to her chin. "While exaggerating our own. I see. That would allow us to still claim the glory, while also removing the vigilante as weapon that can be used against us."

Osaki nodded slowly. He wasn't happy with the deception, and neither was his partner if her discontent look was anything to go by, but they had very few other choices.

"But what about the vigilante themselves?" Yomaura licked her lips nervously. "If he comes out with the truth, we'll look even worse, won't we?"

"Don't worry about that." Osaki said confidently. "They have not come forward yet or even made a single statement, despite the police claiming all the credit for their deeds. I don't think that will change if we start giving them some credit now. And besides, if they come out, we'll just arrest them."

"A solid plan then, if very opportunistic." The half-Irish woman nodded. "We'll have to present the plan to our superiors as soon as possible. There's no reason to assume they'll reject it, so perhaps we can already write some statements for the press."

"Preparation is indeed key to this." Osaki nodded. "To pull this off, the whole agency will have to be ready and informed of everything, lest someone screws it up anyway."

"Before we start writing statements though, we have to go over the new information concerning the vigilante." His Kohai picked up a pen and paper as she spoke. "The vigilante himself still needs to be caught, Senpai, and he won't do that himself."

Osaki agreed, so they went to work. They had theorised some weeks back that Rakurai was a teenager, or at most a young adult, mainly because Rakurai's work had some traits of beginning cops. Improperly clearing a room, following the wrong path through a building, and losing composure when confronted with a truly evil person, like Sawachika.

His partner and he had been looking into every person living in Fuyuki-City that matched the description. Fortunately for them, it wasn't like many people of the specified age-group were capable of what Rakurai casually did every night. The culprit would have to be in very good shape, very healthy, extremely skilled in fighting in general or maybe a martial art of some kind, and also smart enough to find the gangs while the police had been unable to.

Unsurprisingly, there were very few teenagers and young adults conforming to that description. Tracking them down was easy. A visit to every high school and every dojo in the city, as well as all kendo and archery clubs, contributed a great deal.

With all of this fortune, it was perhaps only to be expected that it turned out to be a dead end. Every possible suspect had excellent alibis or factors that excluded them from the list, such as disorders, phobia's, plain stupidity and more.

So they had broadened their vision, easing up a bit on the requirements. And doing so again when that didn't yield any results either, and again, and again, and again. Up to the point where Osaki was quite sure that they had investigated every teenager in the city who had something impressive to their name. But without any success.

No, if the vigilante was indeed a teenager or young adult, they wouldn't find him just by going to schools and universities. They would have to adopt a different tactic. The problem however was that they didn't have any other clues or leads to pursue, especially since Rakurai had dropped off the map lately.

At least, until he had been found again by the girls, who had manged to connect him with act of vigilantism that had taken place in cities that were located hours away from Fuyuki, even with the car or public transport, far beyond a teenagers ability to travel in one night.

Far from being deterred by this however, Osaki and Yomaura had just been spurred by it to work even harder.

"So he has been seen again in Urayasu this time?" Yomaura asked, reading a report about criminals being taken down by an unknown person in the aforementioned city. "Heh, can't fault him. It was high time someone took out the trash at that place."

"True." Osaki sighed. He had been doing a lot of sighing today, hadn't he?

He too was reading the article and couldn't help but agree with his partner. Urayasu's reputation was a poor one, with its crime statistics being a thing of legends, in a very bad way. Rakurai couldn't have picked a better target.

Again, the vigilante hadn't left a single trace behind according to the article. He'd have to contact the precinct in Urayasu to get the details.

After another half-an-hour of fruitless discussions, going over the same information dozens of times, and almost falling asleep the entire time, Yomaura threw her pen down.

"I'm done with this." She hissed, massaging her wrist. "Let's just write down some statements to give to the public for when we introduce the vigilante to them and go to bed."

"That shouldn't take too long." Osaki mused, putting aside the accumulated writings about Rakurai in favour of grabbing an empty sheet of paper. "I have no doubt most people in this city will eat up the story of an 'awesome vigilante' roaming the streets. However, we must present it carefully. With all these comic books around, many will see Rakurai as a hero instead of a law-breaker. We'll have to be cautious of that and portray him correctly."

"Say, Senpai." Yomaura interrupted him. "Why do you keep calling the vigilante by the name Chiho-chan has given to him?"

"It fits." He answered shortly. "It describes his MO, his preferred circumstances of working, and it is cool enough for the public to remember. Don't forget, people adore cool things, and will often try to name them if they lack a name or if their assigned name isn't cool enough. I wish to avoid that here."

"Wise." Yomaura grunted, before falling silent as the two began working on the speech. For another forty minutes, the only sound was the scratching of pens on paper, before, at long last, they were satisfied with what they had put together.

"Well then Senpai. It is time for me to go home I think." Yomaura said with a large yawn. "Thank you for your hospitality, and the meal Suki-chan made."

"Are you sure you should be going home at this hour?" Osaki had no trouble admitting his concern for her. "You look like you can barely remain upright. Is it not wiser to take the guest-room?"

"I haven't exactly slept a lot over the past weeks, Senpai." His Kouhai confessed with an embarrassed grin, looking at the ground in a way very similar to the girls. "I have been very busy you see? And today's stress didn't help either. So I happily accept your offer to stay here. It is warm enough to not need any sleeping wear anyway, and I can go without brushing my teeth for one night."

"Neither of those is necessary." Osaki waved his hand, as if to brush the nonsense to the side. "There are plenty of night-gowns in the drawers in the guest-rooms and many unused toothbrushes in the cupboard under the stairs. Feel free to grab what you need."

With an exclamation of gratitude, his partner made her way out of his study, leaving Osaki behind, who could only shake his head at his partner's behaviour. Normally, she was so prim and proper, eager to please and cautious to not do anything wrong. At home though, she would mellow out a lot, and even more so when she was tired.

Not that he minded. He was very fond of the professional Yomaura, but he had found long ago that he liked the informal Taya as well.

After putting away the paperwork, he followed her out to get to bed himself. Taking care to not walk in on his partner during her changing, he too put on his sleeping wear, brushed his teeth, and bade his partner goodnight at the door of the guestroom.

Before he could leave for his own room however, Yomaura spoke up once more.

"Thanks for letting me stay here again. I'll gladly repay you later, and I'll clean the room as well tomorrow."

"You don't have to clean it, you are a guest here." Osaki answered. "And repayment… Help me set the girls at ease tomorrow and we'll be even. Kami knows they'll want your forgiveness as well."

"That goes without saying." She responded. "We'll take care of our girls in the morning. For now, good night, Koyo."

"Good night, Taya."

She smiled, almost sultry, as she took a step closer to him, coyly pressing her lips to his cheek in a feather-light kiss, before stepping back, casting a glance at the girls' rooms with a very fond smile.

And she closed the door of her room behind her, leaving him standing outside.

With a quiet laugh, he made for his own room. His mood, which had deteriorated over the course of the evening, was excellent once more. He had caught what Taya said to him, and he couldn't help but be appreciative.

'Our girls', she said.

Not 'your girls', or just their names, or any other impersonal referral, but instead something that indicated she considered the girls as her own.

It was good to know that the women in his life were getting along so well.

' _Yes, good to know indeed.'_ He thought to himself while he settled in his blankets. _Yomaura really is far better person than_ she _is._

' _Our girls'._

'She' _would never have said that._

 _Damn her, well and truly damn_ that woman _to hell.'_

And with those dark last thoughts, detective Osaki fell asleep, after an evening that was far more eventful than he could possibly have anticipated.

* * *

It was with a shake of his head that Joseph Balefor discarded yet another failed experiment after yet another failure. Human, animal, or even Homunculus, he just couldn't get them to cooperate with him.

It was _extremely_ fortunate for him that there was no shortage of subjects for him to work with, considering how many he went through on an average day. His research was difficult and slow-going, and that was when resources were in abundance. If there was a shortage instead... He didn't even want to think of how slow it would go then.

Balefor sighed, his mind wandering back to better times. In the beginning, back when he had just joined his current group, he had made more progress in a day than he did now in a month. It was only recently that he had hit a roadblock. All of his experiments were going horribly wrong, seemingly without any cause. He could only hope it was temporary, as there was still so much for him to discover in his field of interest.

It was perhaps important to note that his objective was not to reach Akasha.

Well, okay, ultimately, it was, but he was not pursuing it directly. Unlike many other Magi, he knew it was useless to pursue that ideal with the means the Magus Association could currently provide. Perhaps if a True Magician or a human with a Reality Marble were to suddenly appear, they would make some actual progress, but everyone below creatures like that? No chance.

So instead, Balefor had taken to laying the groundwork for future generations, being satisfied with the knowledge that someone would one day reach Akasha partially because of his own contributions.

Not only those who wanted to reach the Root would appreciate the findings that he was going to make here though. Every single Magus in the world would! His work was revolutionary, game-changing. When he finished his project, he wouldn't need to hide, the nobles of the Clocktower would beg him on their bare knees to grace them with his presence. He would solve an ages-old problem of Magecraft.

Everyone in the Moonlit World who hadn't lived under a rock knew that Magic, the Od, came from the Soul. This could be combined with the Mana in the air to make Prana, which would enable one to use Thaumaturgy.

A select few people on the world had Magic Circuits, the pathways, or veins if you prefer, in their Soul, through which magical power flowed inside of one's being.

Most people did not have any Magic Circuits however, making it impossible for them to use any kind of Thaumaturgy by themselves, which was why those with Magic Circuits would always be superior to them.

Even for those with Magic Circuits, not all was well however. 'To be a Magus is to walk with death' was a very commonly known saying among those of the Moonlit World, as the same Magic that could help one ascend to higher planes could also tear one apart in the blink of an eye.

Most Magi, himself and his partners included, didn't consider that much of a hurdle though. The fear of death may scare away those too afraid to chase after their ambitions, the whelps that didn't have the spine to pursue their dream, but it didn't scare Balefor and his associates. They had outgrown such petty fears long ago.

That didn't mean however that there were no problems of a different kind. Even for for brave Magi, the usage of Magecraft was fraught with peril, and full of difficulties. The undisputed biggest of those difficulties being the insufferable lack of power most Magi had to deal with.

Yes, that was correct. Even though Magic Circuits enabled Magi to rise above the rabble, those Magic Circuits were often inadequate for those who possessed them. There were too few of them, or they were too weak.

There was always a shortage of Prana. Even those that would save their power for years in storage items outside of the body would see that supply burned through in weeks should they actually try to do something worthwhile. Added to that was the fact that most Magi weren't even capable of storing power like that, meaning that every moment not spend on work represented an awful load of Prana wasted.

Even he, Joseph Balefor, heir to an ancient and well-respected family, had only thirty-three Circuits of average quality, and he was considered _above_ average. Of course, he had the added advantage of having a crest that contained one-hundred-and-twenty-one more Circuits inside of him, but that was still not enough.

Even with all of his power, which was far more than most Magi had access to, he still had to spend countless hours waiting until he had 'reloaded' his reserves, he was exhausted after a couple of minutes of fighting, and he just plain couldn't do some things because he couldn't amass enough Prana at once for them.

Fortunately, every one of the aforementioned problems could be led back to just one issue. If he could fix that, the rest would follow easily. He simply would have to do something to make Prana an unlimited resource, so that every Magus in the world could do what they wanted to do, without worrying about their reserves.

' _Well, not every Magus.'_ He corrected himself with a small smile. _'Only those I deem worthy shall partake in the fruits of my eventual success. Those that do not have my favour will either have to endear themselves to me, or never gain access to unlimited power.'_

He had tried his luck with all kinds of methods, using everything in the Clocktower that he could get his hands on, just experimenting a bit to see what would produce desirable results. He'd had little to no success.

His attempts to lessen Gaia's influence hadn't born him any fruit, and in addition to that, he had been slapped down at once when his uncle had realised what he had been doing, telling him that messing with that deity was downright suicidal.

Trying to harvest more Mana from the air helped in some instances, such as Shamanic rituals, Formalcraft and even with Runes, a tiny bit. But always very little, and with nothing else.

That was when he had started looking into sharing power between individuals, willingly or otherwise. The Crests that were passed on through families were a good example of this. Willing individuals sharing power. Every generation contributed a bit to the Crest, and the later descendants could reap the benefits and add their own share.

The downside about Crests however was that there were a very limited number of them around in the world today. Their precise origin was unknown, though it was heavily speculated that least a number of them had been created originally by Solomon, the King of Magic, who then had passed them on to Magi around him. A feat that had not been replicated ever since.

Combining spells and Circuits and whatnot together in an intricate manner like a Crest was undoable for most Magi of the present era, so the ones that did exist were heavily guarded, and any tampering was frowned upon or even punished. Nevertheless, Balefor had eventually decided that studying Crests was probably the best way to reach his ultimate goal, so that was what he had done.

With full permission of course; His uncle was the bearer of the Balefor-family Crest and not without influence in the Clocktower. The man had been willing to let his nephew study his own Crest, and had arranged access to the few Crests in the Mage Association's storage, as long as there would be no cutting, slicing, or other impairing things involved.

Balefor had agreed, as he wasn't anywhere near the stage where it would be required to cut open Crests for more knowledge.

From that point on, it had all gone rather well. He had been able to sketch a somewhat coherent picture of Crests in general, discovering they had all been build following the same base-plan, yet what that base-plan could be, or how to replicate it, he didn't know, yet.

Another useful piece of information was a new way of adding spells and Circuits to Crests, easier than the standard methods, which had been greatly appreciated by his uncle and the man's associates. After that however, Balefor's research hit a large snag, and didn't progress anymore.

He had not been overly worried about that. He had been the foremost candidate for receiving the Balefor-family Crest and he would have been able to study it more closely when it would have passed on to him after his uncle's death.

Until then, he had decided to focus on other matters and pursuits, such as working with living animals, and later trying his hand at human experimentation too, when it had turned out he possessed considerable talent in the field of working with living creatures.

It had just been a flight of fancy at first, to kill some time until his uncle finally died and get some experience for future experiments he had been planning. Before he knew it though, he had made quite a name for himself and many people had hired him to make them some 'interesting projects'.

It wasn't at all when he had envisioned himself to be doing in his life, making Chimeras and other constructs for any Magus willing to pay, but after some thought, he'd shrugged his shoulders and accepted their offers.

' _I must say I am happy I did that.'_ Balefor thought to himself. _'If it wasn't for my accomplishments back then, my current group would never have reached out to me, and God only knows how much I still would be suffering now in that case.'_

Without a doubt, he had it much better here in Japan than back in England. Back at the Clocktower, back when he hadn't been a Sealing Designee yet, the circumstances he'd been forced to work under had been horrendous and incredibly stifling.

Not when he had been experimenting on animals or when dealing with willing subjects like his uncle, no, the Clocktower had been very sharing and accommodating when he had been doing that, but it had been as good as forbidden to work on living humans. Experimentation could be done on the corpses that were pulled from mortuaries, or sometimes on Sealing Designees and criminals, but capturing people of the streets was forbidden.

Supposedly, this was because kidnapping people had a high chance of revealing Magecraft to the world, something that had to be avoided at all costs.

Balefor had thought that reason idiotic back then and he still thought so now. Presently, he could even back it up with evidence. Abducting people of the streets did nothing to expose the Moonlit World as long as you were a little smart and careful about it.

Still, it wasn't allowed, no matter how much time and effort he and some other like-minded people put into making plans to safely obtain specimens. Their pleas and ideas were constantly rejected out of hand. It had been maddening, doubly so because Balefor knew very well that it wasn't actually forbidden because 'it could compromise the secrecy of Magecraft'.

It was forbidden because of that arrogant, prissy, bleeding-heart bitch of a Barthomeloi!

Lorelei Barthomeloi. The name alone was enough to piss Balefor off. An uppity woman, widely regarded as a cold, ruthless Magus, more than deserving of her first-rate designation. In many ways, he had to admit here, she indeed was.

What many people could not see however was that she also had a disgustingly weak side about her. It was her who had forbidden the abduction of people unrelated to the Moonlit World, giving some weak excuse involving 'cameras', and 'surveillance systems' and other nonsensical terms like that.

Most Magi had slavishly done as she said, accepting her words, but Balefor wasn't so easily deceived. He understood that she was just weak. That had been made clear as day when she had personally come over to his chambers to slap him down after he had submitted his seventh request to obtain specimens.

She hadn't given any reasons, she hadn't explained anything, she had just torn up the papers with his research and requests on them and told him that if he dared to kidnap anyone, she'd kill him herself.

He had feared for his life at that moment and had agreed to stay down and behave like a good little boy, lest she made good on her threat. He didn't believe for a moment that it had been an idle one.

That she hadn't been bluffing was proven a little over a month after that incident. A friend of his had been caught kidnapping infants from a maternity-ward to use for his research. Barthomeloi had been angrier than he'd ever seen anyone be that day. She had quite literally torn his friend to pieces, right where he had been standing, when she had heard of it.

She had cited disobedience and endangerment of the secrecy as reasons for her brutal action, but there was no denying that she had looked very satisfied after that, like someone who had avenged others in a righteous kind of way.

It was also quite telling that the abducted infants, all of them in fact, had been returned to their mothers the next day.

It was mostly circumstantial, he knew that, but he had often been praised for his perceptiveness, and too many clues pointed towards the same thing. That little bitch didn't deserve to be called Queen of the Clocktower. He had been smart enough however to not mention his suspicions to anyone, as that would just have gotten him killed as well.

So he had kept his mouth shut, and his eyes fixed on animals. He would continue pursuing his greatest goal when he had his family's Crest. With that uppity bitch watching him like a hawk, it was much too dangerous to do otherwise.

He would make his breakthrough, and with the fame and influence it would bring him, he could have his revenge and oust Barthomeloi, or maybe force her to marry him and teach her she shouldn't snap at her betters. That would be much more satisfying, he had to admit. The image of breaking the proud woman was very appetising indeed.

That was however when things started to go wrong.

His uncle, fearful of what he might do to the Crest upon receiving it and also disapproving of his belief that power was all that mattered, had refused him the Crest entirely. His uncle had always believed hard work and dedication could make up for any lacking talent, in complete opposition of Balefor's beliefs.

This difference in opinion had led to his uncle refusing to make Balefor his heir, choosing one of his own sons instead, a man of mediocre talent, but with unwavering dedication and a penchant for hard work. In short, just what his uncle appreciated in a Magus.

It had been a big shock to Balefor when he had heard of it. The only chance for him to get a Crest, and it was taken from him. Not to mention that he'd never be able to amass the influence he would need to match Barthomeloi if he wasn't the head of a family.

He had realised it would spell the end of his ambition. He would have had to work on chimeras and other small pursuits for the rest of his life, just to earn his living. Not to mention that Barthemeloi had still been carrying a grudge for him. If he had stayed, he would have been challenged to a 'duel' at one point or another, he was sure of it.

So, one evening, he had decided he'd had enough.

The rest, as they say, is history. He had killed his uncle and stole the crest, before murdering his cousin too. Just as a little goodbye-present to the family. After that, he'd booked it, surviving on the fringes of society, living much below his standing, getting by with illegal surgeries on mundane people and other such pursuits.

He had despised it, but obtaining a Crest was worth some discomfort.

It became even more bearable when many of his former employers from the Clocktower had just kept on hiring him to make them some 'interesting guardians', letting him make some money again. Enough to live on for a while if he skimped on luxury. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to continue his research under such conditions.

It was horrible, but then everything changed, for the better.

A few months after fleeing from the Clocktower, he had gotten an order for a couple of chimeras, with in the same letter also a request for him to come to Japan to meet a group of individuals in the same situation as he was. A group he could perhaps join if he was interested.

Being interested, and knowing that Japan was far away from the Clocktower, removed from most of its influence, he had accepted the offer.

That choice had been one of the best he had ever made, perhaps only second to killing his uncle and cousin and taking the family-Crest. After meeting with the others only once, he had already understood that this was his calling.

They had taken him in, granting him many opportunities he wouldn't have gotten if he had been in hiding alone or even if he'd stayed in the Clocktower for all his life. He had all the freedom and resources he needed to let his artistic spirit come to expression, and best of all: no Bathomeloi breathing down his neck. Boy, he could only imagine how pissed she must have been back when news reached her that he had made off with the Balefor-Crest. He wished he could have seen her face.

Chuckling lightly, Balefor finished cleaning up his working space. Now, would he start another experiment or go to tonight's meeting early?

Burgon and Waudenstad had insisted on weekly 'conferences' to plan out new strategies ever since they had hit the first snags on their master-plan to kidnap the girl. They hadn't really made any progress yet, but Balefor had good hopes for today. Waudenstad had said he had thrown his all into a new plan, and considering the rat-man's level of intelligence, it should be something good.

Ordering his Homunculi to prepare his workspace for the next round, he decided to first go to that meeting. With a bit of luck, it wouldn't take too long.

He made his way out of his Workshop and walked towards the conference-room. Despite being early however, he once more was the last one to arrive. Taking his chair quickly, he had an apology on his lips, but it was waved away by Burgon before it could be spoken out loud.

After some polite inquiries about the progress of his work by Burgon, the snide insults of Palerna and Alva, and the short nod of Waudenstad, they were all ready to begin.

"I thank you for coming, hm, yes." Waudenstad began, opening the discussion. "I was ordered last week to devise a simple, yet effective plan, and I think I have succeeded quite well, hm."

"Oh, excellent." Burgon said with a smile, leaning forward in anticipation. "Do tell us, Oliver. Don't leave us hanging after such a riveting and exciting statement."

"I agree." Palerna smiled, angling her head coquettishly to the side. "Though your previous plans were… how do I say this? …Quite complicated in nature, you are a certified genius. I look forward to what you can do when you take things seriously."

"It is nothing special." Waudenstad said humbly. "I have simply kept a close eye on her coming and going, her everyday life, and I have found a disruption in her normal schedule."

"And that is important, why exactly?" Alva asked.

"Because while the chance of abducting her inside Fuyuki-City is small, and inside of her Workshop even smaller, we do in fact have a considerable chance if she is out of her comfort-zone." Palerna replied with a grin, one that grew wider when Waudenstad nodded in agreement.

"Correct, good to see there are some brains up there to compliment the looks." Waudenstad remarked. He wasn't flirting- Balefor wasn't sure the man even knew what that was- he was completely serious with his compliment.

Palerna huffed, smiling and giving a small wave with her hand, as if to brush away the praise. "It wasn't hard to think of." She said in a voice of genuine modesty.

The little rat-man giggled, rubbing his small hands together as he nodded. "You neverthless nailed it quite well, miss Palerna. Now, listen to me, all of you, whilst I explain my very simple plan."

Balefor leaned forward in interest, noting absently that the other three did so as well. It was enough to prompt Waudenstad to begin speaking:

"As I have said before, attacking her in Fuyuki-City itself is dangerous. Of course, not in the sense that she might overpower us in a fight or something, perish the thought, but more that we only get one shot before she might file a complaint with the Clocktower. And as you all know, that kind of complaints are always taken very seriously. Hm, yes. That is why I propose to act only when she is well away from her own city."

"That sounds simple indeed." Burgon mused, going with a hand over his chin. "Do you not think it is perhaps too simple, old friend?"

"No, because while it may be simple to understand, I have never said it will be easy in terms of execution." Waudenstad scowled, though it was more at the situation than at Burgon. "The only chance we have of taking her when she is outside of her base is in about two months, when she will stay the night in Hikone of all places."

"Hikone?" This time it was Balefor himself who interrupted the ratman, and with good reason. Hikone had been the city where he had successfully pulled off their trick for the first time. If the Tohsaka was indeed going there, that would be quite the nasty coincidence.

Waudenstad nodded sombrely. "Indeed. A strange coincidence. And yes, that's all it is; A coincidence, nothing more. I have checked it thoroughly and repeatedly and have found nothing to suggest it was for the purpose of drawing us out."

"Good, that is good." Burgon sighed in relief. A sigh echoed by the other people in the room. "If you say so, Oliver, then I will believe you."

"That is all good and well." Alva hissed, looking once more as if he were on the edge of a tantrum. "But you still haven't told us your so-called 'masterplan' yet, Waudenstad. Why don't you start talking now, before I go off to abduct her myself."

"Then I will test your patience no longer." The addressed plotter replied without missing a beat. "As it turns out, there has been a curious initiative among many cities in this quaint little country. They have organised swimming lessons for the children."

"Swimming lessons?" Palerna parroted, looking confused. "How does that have any relevance to the matter at hand?"

"I am getting there." Was the succinct reply from the rat-man. "As I was saying, swimming lessons have been organised for the youth. I plan to profit from this. After all, our target is a child herself. Miss Tohsaka is of the correct age to be included in this initiative, so she will have to participate, whether she wants to or not. And to answer the questions that you no doubt have now: no, she won't hypnotise herself out of this. That is against decorum, against the rules of the Magus Association, and not her style at all. Hm."

His eye twitching at the almost obligatory sounding hum at the end, Balefor decided to get to the crux of the matter: "And if I am not mistaken, then these swimming lessons have something to do with getting Tohsaka out of her stronghold?"

"Naturally, why else would I ever make a mention of it?" Waudenstad said snidely. "The eventual exam meant to test the capabilities of every student will be held in Hikone. Since it is far away from Fuyuki, Tohsaka and the rest of the children will also spend the night after the exam there, before driving back the next morning."

"She will be out of her Workshop and out of her city all together." Alva deducted, slowly spelling out Waudenstad's plan for him. "And since all of the other brats are going with her, they'll have to stay in a big hotel of sorts, which will be fairly open for attacks. We can strike then."

"Correct, mostly." Waudenstad said. "Though we will not be the ones striking. I have already hired someone for that."

"Excellent foresight, Oliver." Burgon smiled, throwing his arms wide in a gesture of enthusiasm. "But if you don't mind, I would like to meet this employee of yours first."

The little man nodded in response, making a note of it on a piece of paper, while the rest of the room went over his plan. Balefor for one couldn't say it was a bad plan. Very simple yes, but that was what they'd asked for, and it certainly sounded effective. No, he had no complaints.

Not everyone seemed to agree though.

"This is all good and well, but your plan will have us spend two months doing absolutely nothing at all." Alva sneered. "I don't like it. Can we not at least do something that will increase our chance of success?"

Burgon and Waudenstad pursed their lips and stroked their chins in almost identical motions, attempting to hash out a plan that would give the perpetually restless Southern-European something to do.

"How about this then, Allesandro." Burgon eventually proposed. "We will prepare for the main plan that dear Oliver just laid out for us, but in the meantime, we can still try our hand at abducting her sooner than that, as long as we are careful to not give her any cause to suspect something is wrong."

"Hm, so for instance, if I were to try and draw her out of her little town with, let's say, some of those gems that her family so highly covets, and I were to successfully capture her, it would be okay?" Palerna questioned.

"As long as you make sure you don't get caught by her." Burgon laughed in response to the inquiry.

Hearing this, Balefor internally debated for a moment whether he wanted to try his luck at abducting the Tohsaka heiress, but ultimately decided against it. It wasn't worth it, as he simply couldn't miss the time it would cost him.

Fortunately, there was no need for him to do anything. He was only interested in the Tohsaka-Crest, and since none of the others would know what to do with a Crest that was not compatible with them, it was as good as certain that it would go to him.

The others didn't seem to share his opinion, and were now furiously scribbling schemes and plots down on the pieces of paper in front of them. Even Burgon was writing, though a lot calmer than the others.

It would probably be for the best if Balefor left now, but as he looked at the Southern-European duo plotting together, he couldn't resist the temptation to get one last little jab in.

"Oh, before I forget to mention this; Alva, Palerna, do make sure your experiments don't escape your sight again, please." He told them, carefully keeping any mocking out of his tone, knowing that they'd understand the jab anyway. "It was such a shame to have that particular one escape from you, hm?"

Burgon and Waudenstad laughed, while Alva glared at him in response and Palerna gave him a little pout. "We said we were sorry that it managed to escape. Why do you keep bringing it up?"

"Because it is amusing, dear." Burgon replied in Balefor's stead, winking at the distraught woman. "The fact that you let a fledgling Dead Apostle escape from your workshop, the one that you created out of that pathetic, drugs-selling, whining boy even, does drawn some mocking chuckles even from the most compassionate of us."

"I am just happy that we can all laugh about it." Waudenstad said, the little grin on his face making him seem all the more like a rat. "If it had been one of Joseph's chimeras, or one of my Runestones, then we wouldn't be laughing at all, rather we would be scurrying for damage control. Those things would draw the wrong sort of attention right towards us. A Dead Apostle is hardly a problem though. Those abominations are spawned in great numbers even without us contributing. It also helps no one would listen to the ramblings of a just-turned vampire, they will just kill it and be done with it. No risk for us."

Balefor agreed with the assessment. The chance that the Dead Apostle would be the cause of their downfall was so close to zero that it would practically never happen. Nevertheless, it was still amusing to rib the two researchers every once in a while, just to make sure they stayed on their toes.

Now, with the mocking over and done, he should leave.

Balefor rose from his seat, straightened his shirt, and turned towards his leader. "Can I be excused then? I would like to continue my research."

He got yet another smile in return. It almost seemed as if the old man did nothing but smile the entire time. "Of course, young one. Go now and have fun. I think the rest of us are going to stay here for some more time, I feel like we are finally making some progress."

With a curt nod, Balefor exited the room again. The Homunculus he had left in his workshop should be done preparing his tools and workspace by now. All he had to do was grab a new specimen from the storage, secure it to the table, and start working.

Maybe he could finally make some progress again. That would be nice.

* * *

"Where is your master?!"

The question was roared with a thunderous voice, as Shirou slammed the Dead against the wall, holding it at its throat, while moving Mjolnir in a threatening motion towards the pinned creature. Around them laid the disappearing corpses of its fellows, who had been taken down by Shirou only moments before.

He had been hunting the Dead Apostle for quite some time now, and while he had not been able to pinpoint its exact location, he could at least determine that he was actually getting closer to his prey. He could only hope he would find it before the night was over, or things would get even harder.

Dead Apostles had a telepathic connection with their minions, and this particular Apostle would notice soon that someone was hunting down its familiars. That would spur the creature to relocate as soon as possible, which would probably throw Shirou off its trail completely.

He wasn't very worried yet though, as he still had some time left and the Apostle didn't seem to have noticed his presence for now, if the calm state of the Dead was anything to go by. The vampire's familiars weren't relocating for safety, or amassing to attack him at once, but instead remained largely stationary on their spots, only reacting when he came too close. As such, he could conclude that either the Apostle hadn't noticed him yet, or that it was consciously keeping everything relatively silent in an effort to misdirect Shirou, so it could safely escape.

Since the origin of the smell of death wasn't relocating, he would assume it was the former.

Despite that, he still had decided to attempt something that had the potential of saving him a lot of time, that being singling out one of the Dead and trying to interrogate it.

It was a very long shot, since every book that he had ever read, and his father as well, had agreed with each other that the Dead were nothing but mindless husks that only moved through the will of their master. You couldn't interrogate something that did not speak, did not think and did not feel.

He had still attempted it, if only to check for himself. He had found, leaning back slightly to avoid the clawing hands of his conversation partner, that the books and his father had been absolutely correct.

"SSSSCCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

Another screech echoed through the alley, as the creature once more made clear that it wasn't capable of coherent speech, coherent thought, or indeed any thought at all. Shirou had expected as much, but it was still a shame there was no short-cut to finding their master.

So with a sigh, he pulled his arm back slightly, before slamming the Dead against the wall again with enough force to kill it and reduce it to dust. And to accidentally put some cracks in said wall, but no one was living in that rundown building anyway, so it was okay.

Shaking his hand to get it free from the dust, Shirou took a deep breath through his nose, once more confirming that the origin of the scent of death was still in the same place.

That same breath however also revealed that there were more of the Dead in an alley somewhere to his left, and that they were currently rapidly conversing on a specific spot, most likely to attack some poor soul. He would have to intervene. Saving a life had priority over tracking the still-stationary Dead Apostle after all.

Shirou immediately flew to his destination, and to his great delight, he was in time to prevent the poor victim from becoming yet another minion he would be forced to put down. From up above, he could clearly see how she was trying to run away, as the Dead gave chase. The woman was running impressively fast, even though she had a slight limp, all the while calling for help.

Having seen enough, Shirou struck.

He flew down to the ground at his maximum speed, making sure to land between the woman and her pursuers, coming down with great force, shaking the ground and even cracking the stones beneath him.

Absently, he registered a feminine yelp behind him, followed by a thud that indicated the woman had tripped. He winced slightly, hoping she was okay but unwilling to take his eyes of his opponents, lest they might try to pass by him and attack her.

Both parties stood across from each other, staring silently, neither side moving an inch. One side was frozen in instinctive surprise, the other in quiet contemplation.

Then all sped forward at inhuman speed.

The minions of the Dead Apostles, though not sentient, were fearsome opponents for any unprepared hero. They were faster, stronger, and more resilient than a normal human had any right to be. They had fangs and claws and were almost never alone.

A good thing then that Shirou was in fact prepared.

After having kicked off from his spot, Shirou was upon them in less than a second, too fast for them to perceive, much less react to. The first of the Dead promptly received a blow to the head that would have knocked over a fully-grown elephant. It proved to be enough to obliterate its head on the spot.

Two of the others, driven by instinct, immediately lashed out at the shape responsible for the demise of their comrade.

Their claws hit nothing but air, as Shirou had already taken two steps backwards in order to dodge such retaliating strikes, after which two quick jabs at the now-exposed midriffs of the ones who had failed to strike him were enough to reduce the number of opponents from four to two.

Not stopping to mourn their comrades, the remaining Dead attempted an attack of their own, blindly lashing out at him in very predictable strikes with very telegraphed movements. Looking at them, Shirou felt only sadness. They had been nothing more than a teenage boy and an old woman, and now they were not only dead, but their bodies were desecrated in one of the most horrendous ways possible.

The sadness did not stop him from dispatching them though. The people they had once been were gone now, and mindless slaves were all that remained. Defeating them would be a mercy to the deceased.

Done with dodging, Shirou caught the claws on his vambraces, easily blocking the assault with superior strength and unyielding arm-protection. He then threw his arms wide, throwing his opponents off balance as they stumbled backwards for a moment, giving him the opportunity to jab at their throats, shattering their necks and killing them right away.

Just like that, the fight was over. Shirou quickly inspected his vambraces for any damage, ignoring the incredulous huff from Mjolnir at that action. True to the hammer's word, there was not even a scratch on them.

He'd swapped his vigilante-outfit for his armour some time ago, just in case the Apostle had something that could potentially pierce his skin and injure him. Also, it was high time he would get some experience wearing it. He had no doubt he would have to wear it a lot more in the nearby future. He was still wearing his vigilante-mask though, covering the lower half of his face, making him properly unrecognisable.

But he was forgetting something again, wasn't he…?

The sound of someone crawling backwards over the ground, accompanied by almost hysterical breaths, reminded him of the presence of the victim behind him. Shirou turned around slowly, not wanting to scare the no doubt-terrified woman even more than she already was. Being chased by literal zombies had to be a frightening experience, and not one that she had any business remembering.

He would have to alter her memory a bit, perhaps change it to her being chased by normal criminals before a vigilante had driven them off. Yes, that sounded like a proper plan. With that in mind, he faced the woman.

"How-? What-? Who are you?" The woman managed to get out, looking at him with eyes wide as saucers, laying on her back, a hand raised in order to point a disbelieving finger at him. "W-what d-d-did y-you do t-to t-those p-p-people?" She screeched, stuttering from the raw terror coursing through her veins.

Shirou flinched, looking away slightly and raising a hand to scratch the back of his head. He really should have anticipated this. Of course a normal human, ignorant of the Moonlit World, would be shocked to near speechlessness by being chased by the Dead.

Maybe it was for the best that he would remove this entire episode from her mind, instead of just altering the memory. Things like this tended to traumatise lesser informed people quite heavily to say the least. Even if he did alter the memory, it might take several months or even years of therapy for her to get over this experience.

Or maybe she'd get over it by sunrise. Shirou wouldn't know, he was no psychiatrist.

But he was getting off topic again. Looking at the terrified, sniffling woman in front of him, Shirou knew he'd have to act now. Delaying in altering her memory would serve no one, not him and not the woman. Yet he was still hesitating, for some reason.

...It might just be prudent, he decided, to ask her a couple of questions about her pursuers, to see if her information could help him find the Apostle faster. Maybe she could point him in the right direction, or at least share observations that may be of use to him in his hunt. Nodding to himself, he took a step towards the woman.

"H-hey, answer me!" She cried as he soundlessly began walking towards her, again scrambling backwards as fast as she could.

Belatedly realising that his actions could be seen as threatening, Shirou stopped walking immediately and raised his hands to show he meant no harm.

"Please calm down, ma'am, I mean you no harm." He added, hoping that talking with her might prevent her from losing it completely. "I merely wish to ask you what happened with you and why those people were chasing you. Nothing more, I swear it."

It seemed to work. Although her eyes were still fixed on Mjolnir in his right-hand, the woman noticeably made an effort to compose herself after hearing his words, taking a deep breath and sitting up straight instead of laying on her back. After shaking her head a few times, she already seemed a lot calmer.

The look she gave him was still cautious however, but that was only to be expected after something like this. He also decided that seeing defiance in her eyes was a good sign right now.

"I-I asked y-you a question f-first, y-you know." The woman stuttered out, apparently not as calmed down as Shirou had hoped. "Answer m-me first, and t-then I'll answer y-you."

"Equivalent Exchange?" Shirou asked bemused, impressed at the woman's nerve even under such pressure. "I suppose it is only fair. To answer your questions: first of all, I am only a simple vigilante, who is trying to help people. I cannot tell you anything else, I am attempting to keep my identity a secret after all."

Kiritsugu had made it clear enough during the training he had given to his adopted son. If it is at all possible, avoid giving out any kind of information about yourself, even if it seems unimportant or if you're going to alter their memory anyway. Once you've told someone something, there is always the risk of it getting out beyond your grasp.

"A vigilante?" The woman questioned, tension now largely disappearing out of her body for some reason. "I've never seen a real vigilante before, nor have I heard of one. Are you perhaps new at the profession?"

"I have been active for several months now, actually." Shirou corrected her, not surprised she didn't know of him. "But I haven't been in the news at all, so it makes sense you don't know me."

"Hm, I'll buy that for now I suppose." Was the candid response, with the green-haired woman now smiling cautiously at him.

"But what was all of that just now with those people? What did you do to them? Who-, or should I say, _what_ were they?" She pressed, now apparently feeling comfortable enough to cease stuttering and start demanding the answers from him.

Shirou did not answer for a few moments, weighing the pros and cons of telling her in his mind.

It might just be that she had valuable information, and that to obtain it, he would have to explain a few things to her. But it could also be that she didn't know anything, which would mean he was just wasting time here.

Normally, he would alter her memory immediately and then continue on his way, but it just so happened that his instincts were telling him to choose the other option this time. Seeing that his instincts hadn't led him astray yet, he decided to be truthful with her.

"Those were the familiars of a vampire." He told her, faintly enjoying how the woman blinked in utter confusion.

"Vampire?" The woman whispered, looking at him with wide eyes again. "Those exist? And one is in this town right now?"

"Yes to both questions." Shirou replied. "And I am currently hunting it, which is why I must ask you again to tell me what happened. It is important that I catch this thing before sunrise. Can you give me any information that would make my task easier?"

"Uh, right." The woman mumbled, looking a bit out of it. "I uh, I was just walking a few streets away from here, when these- these vampires came out of an alley and started chasing me."

Not extremely useful information.

"But," The woman continued. "I remember they came for the direction of the old factory. You see, they moved the entire company somewhere else a decade ago, I believe it was a company that made construction items of sorts, and just left the building behind, including everything in it. That sounds like it would make for a good hiding place for a vampire, right?"

"Indeed." Shirou smiled, already scanning the horizon for any visible factories.

"But now that we have helped each other and everything." The woman went on, standing up and dusting herself off, "Maybe we should introduce ourselves. I am-"

"No!" Shirou interrupted her sharply. "Don't tell me your name, I have no business knowing it. I'll make you forget this entire happening anyway after we finish talking."

"Make me forget? Like, _forget_ forget?" The woman questioned, an awed look on her face, which was honestly the last thing Shirou had been expecting from her. "You mean this is like Harry Potter? Or Men in Black? Or one of the other films I watched with the girls? You are going to make me forget this ever happened? That is, well, that is so cool!"

"…"

Shirou had no reaction to that. He somewhat knew the films she was referring to, and she clearly grasped the concept of memory-erasure quite well, but why would she consider it cool?

"Yes, I'll have to make you forget." He confirmed again. "Though you don't have to worry, it's completely harmless."

It was a rather empty platitude, he knew that. which was why he was surprised to receive a warm smile from her in response. "I know it won't hurt, you are too much of a sweetie to hurt me."

Shirou blinked. "Where do you base that on? How would you know I am, well, that I am a 'sweetie'?"

"Because you are still entertaining this ignorant woman instead of just wiping her memory and being done with her." Was the succinct reply. "As well as the fact that you saved my ass from those zombies just now, while you could also just have walked away. Believe me, dear, I have much experience with people walking away, and I know how much easier it is than stepping in and doing the right thing."

"...For what it's worth, removing these memories truly is the best option I have here." Shirou offered, hoping to set her, and himself as well, more at ease with what he was going to do. He felt bad for having to, well, basically remove her memories and walk away, but he didn't have much of a choice here.

"Undoubtedly, otherwise you wouldn't have done it, _sweetie_." The woman smiled, walking towards him to stand in arm's reach of him. Just as he was about to look her straight into the eyes to start modifying her memories, she suddenly put a hand on his shoulder.

He cast a surprised glance at it, but the woman explained before he could ask. "Just a little pat on the shoulder. I figured you deserve something like this. It's not right to let a teenager do all the work."

"Ah, thank you." Shirou mumbled, lightly taking hold of her wrist in a reflex. "I choose to become a vigilante myself though, so please don't feel bad. Also, is it really that apparent that I am young...?"

He immediately released her wrist when he noticed the green-haired woman flinching at his touch. Not a flinch of discomfort or fear, but one of pain.

Now, he might be strong enough to push over an elephant, but he was quite sure he had measured the strength of his grip enough for it to be painless and well within the comfortable zone. That she still flinched in pain meant she had been hurt previously, which made his hero-senses tingle all over again.

"You are in pain." He said sharply, absolutely certain of his declaration. He would accept no denial here, no stammering excuses that were now coming from her mouth. She had been hurt, that was clear. Fortunately, he could actually help her with that.

Very recently, Mjolnir had seen it fit to bestow yet another power upon him. This ability was not rooted in the Magecraft of his world, but rather in the mysterious power that he had wielded ever since Mjolnir's arrival. It was a power that he had seen the use of right away.

 _'Cleansing Power'_ , was what Mjolnir had called it. The power to cleanse and remove everything unnatural around him. It encompassed a lot of different abilities, each and every one of them incredibly useful and highly coveted among Magi.

It was a power that removed everything that was 'not naturally supposed to be there', or rather, everything that _Shirou_ considered to be something that was not naturally supposed to be there. It did not follow the rules of Gaia. Magecraft was not unnatural to the Cleansing Power, since Shirou did not see it as unnatural.

In the same vein, it couldn't be used against any kind of natural, living creature, no matter how evil they might be in their hearts. Shirou didn't know whether that was because _he_ by nature wanted to save everyone, or because the Cleansing Power itself simply worked that way, but it was not possible. Not as long as they remained simple humans.

In order to be affected, one would have to do terrible things to oneself. Things that went against the natural order in grotesque ways. Merely being a Magus or a totally evil villain wasn't enough. You would have to do something like stealing the essence of others to prolong one's own life in order for the Cleansing Power to have any effect on you.

As such, a Dead Apostle and its minions were fair game, and he had already managed to destroy entire groups of the Dead by blasting them with white waves of Cleansing Power, which seemed to work pretty much the same way as lightning blasts. Just aim and shoot basically.

The strength of the Cleansing Power however did not just lie in destruction of evil. It was also a very potent Healing Ability. Once properly mastered, it would be able to cure any wound, curse, or malady with ease, be it natural, magical, divine, or anything other in origin.

He was currently limited to minor wounds, such as cuts, scrapes, bruises, and the like, but he was progressing fast, mostly by healing the few criminals he had accidentally hurt too badly.

It would also prove useful for this situation, to heal the woman, who was still rambling, Shirou noticed.

"Ah, well, yes. I suppose I feel some pain. It's not from the chase just now- or maybe a bit, I think?" She rambled, fretting slightly. "It's just that, well, some of my clients insist on being harsh with me, and, uh, they don't really know when to stop."

Shirou frowned at that, wondering what kind of profession would require her to accept abuse from her clients. Certainly, she wouldn't have to take such a thing lying down. In his relative innocence in such matters, he failed to consider the most obvious option, leaving him guessing, which the woman herself noticed pretty easily.

"Oh, right. You are a teenager, you might not get what I am trying to say." She mumbled, looking contemplatively at him, before straightening her back and spreading her arms wide, as if presenting herself to him. "Perhaps if you take a closer look?"

Shirou looked at her more closely, intently studying her. He could say right away that she was a very beautiful woman, coming close to even Sakura, Ayako, and Tohsaka. She was wearing a short green cocktail dress with a low cut, displaying quite a lot of cleavage. She also wore a jacket over it, as well as thigh-high boots.

All in all, a very impractical outfit to wear late at night. Unless you were one of those women who made their money by…

Oh...

That kind of clients.

"I see you understand now." The woman said with a humourless smile. "I am often not strong enough to defend myself against them, and no one bothers with me afterwards, so I have learned to just take it and shut up. We all learn that at my… job."

Alright. Even if Shirou hadn't been intending to heal her before, he would now. Truly, it was an unfair world to live in, even more than he had thought. This woman in front of him seemed to be barely twenty years old, if that.

The more he learned about the world at large, the more massive his task became to save all. But he wouldn't let that discourage him, he would continue on, working as hard as he could to fulfill his dream, starting right now.

Without another word, he reached out to the woman in front of him again, taking her hand in his. Ignoring the puzzled and questioning look she shot him, he called forth the mysterious power, and pushed it out towards her.

The woman looked on with increasing shock, as trails of golden light came from Shirou's hand and spread to her own body, quickly travelling over her skin and healing any malady they came across, fresh and old. Bruises disappeared. Scars smoothed out. Cuts stitched themselves, fractures in bones healed, sprained muscles relaxed, and much more took place inside of her body.

When it was done, Shirou let go of the woman's hand, but she didn't notice, too occupied with the sudden lack of the pain that had accompanied her ever since her foster-father had started drinking.

When the realisation that it was real had fully sunk in, she turned towards Shirou again, the shocked expression making place for a teary smile. Without saying another word, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"I, well, I- I don't know what to say. Thank you! Thank you so, so much." She began, bringing her hands together in front of her and bowing deeply. "I never thought something like this was possible."

Shirou cocked his head to the side as he observed her. "Do you feel alright now, miss?"

"I am perfectly fine." She replied instantly. "I haven't felt this good since-, since forever. That was amazing. I am ashamed at my own audacity, but I have to ask: Do you have any more of these amazing tricks?"

The last part was said in such an eager tone that Shirou almost had a vision of Sakura jumping at an opportunity to cook with him. The green-haired woman almost looked like an excited child hoping for the magician in front of her to perform another trick.

Perhaps it was that child-like enthusiasm, coupled with her likeness to Sakura, however slight, that spurred him to agree to another trick, just this once.

Without another word, he raised Mjolnir up into the sky, simultaneously taking a deep breath through his nose to locate as many of the Dead as he could right now. He had been making good progress with cleaning the streets, but there should be some more packs close-by.

Detecting four more groups within his range, Shirou tore lightning down from the clouds. Five bolts came down in a spectacular fashion, four of them obliterating the groups of the Dead he had detected earlier, and one coming down on his hammer, for aesthetic purposes.

The show seemed to have its intended effect, as the green-haired woman let out a squeak of surprise as she fell back on the ground. Well, almost fell on the ground. Having foreseen such a reaction, Shirou was quick to grab her arm to pull her back up.

"Thanks." She mumbled, looking alternatively at the sky and at him, opening and closing her mouth at regular intervals. It seemed she needed a moment to properly grasp what he had done.

"You know. That was the most impressive thing I have ever seen, and I would love to glorify it into the sky, but for now, I don't know how to deal with the fact that there are people who can do things like that, so I'll just remain silent." She eventually whispered sheepishly. "Please don't be offended."

Feeling sheepish himself at her praise, Shirou scratched the back of his head, simultaneously assuring the woman that he was not offended. Still, he needed to get moving now. He gave the woman an apologetic look, to which she gave a resigned one in turn.

"I'm going to have to lock those memories away now." He said apologetically.

"Alright, go ahead." She sighed, before looking up with a slightly nervous expression, fidgeting in place. "But what should I do if I'm ever faced with the supernatural again? If I don't have these memories, I just know that my mind will freeze up again. It would make me really easy prey."

Shirou frowned. While the chance that the woman would encounter the supernatural again was very small, it wasn't impossible. Also, he just knew that if he dismissed the possibility now, it would almost certainly happen. His luck was just like that.

On the other hand, he couldn't allow her to walk away with her memory intact either. He would have to get a bit creative to find a solution for this dilemma, but fortunately, he already had an idea.

"How about this then?" He proposed. "I will lock the memories of these events away, but if you are ever in the presence of something unnatural or impossible, that lock will break and you will regain the memories of this conversation instantly."

Her first response was a surprised blink, followed by a shake of the head and a muttering of 'irresponsibly overpowered wizards'.

"Sounds acceptable." She then smiled, folding her hands in front of her in a sign of gratitude. "Then I suppose you can do it now. No sense in delaying."

"Look into my eyes." Shirou ordered, waiting until he had eye-contact and then doing exactly what he had promised he would do, erecting a barrier that would break when the woman was confronted with the supernatural.

When he was done with the process, he wished her good luck with a soft voice, before quickly disappearing while she recovered from the disorientation. No sense in repeating the entire conversation they just had after all.

Flying away from the scene, making his way over to the old factory, Shirou had mixed feelings. On one hand, he genuinely hoped to see the young woman again someday. She had been a very nice person, whom he had enjoyed talking to for as long as it lasted. On the other hand, such a thing would mean exposing her again to the dark side of the world, and that was not something he was willing to do.

Unknown to him though, that was not a choice he would get to make. There was no way he could have anticipated this, but the woman regained her memories very quickly, the very next day in fact.

When Shirou had healed her injuries, he had unknowingly bestowed upon her a small amount of his mysterious power, the Shirou-Force. It was but a drop compared to the amounts he could channel himself, a drop in his reserves that was replaced immediately, but it was enough to give her more power than any mundane could ever hope to have.

That power had settled into her. The drop had been given to her in good fate by the wielder of the Shirou-Force himself, and now she could reap the benefits in the form of a healing factor, increased physical abilities and resistance against mind-altering.

The day after meeting Shirou, the woman had to entertain another client, who happened to be of the aggressive kind, seeing women like her as nothing more than things to do with as he wanted.

The woman naturally attempted to protect herself, although she didn't expect any success. All of the other times this had happened had proven she simply wasn't strong enough to defend herself.

It was to her great surprise then, that a single open-handed-slap managed to not only get the guy off her, but also sent him careening into a wall, knocking him out cold. Barely able to believe it, she sat on the couch, frozen in mid-motion.

She did not have much time to be surprised however before the next shock came over her.

She had knocked out the guy who had been assaulting her, but his friend, another one of that highly aggressive, wannabe-dominant kind, had then pulled a knife on her, shouting several verbal abuses and threats at her.

Still in shock about her own deed, the woman hadn't reacted in time to stop his swing at her. It turned out that it didn't matter though, as the knife broke on her skin the moment it made contact.

Having regained her bearings at that moment, the woman quickly thought back on the few self-defence classes she had been able to attend. A punch then proved enough to knock the other guy out as well.

As she hastily returned to her lodgings afterwards, her mind reeling from what had just happened, she could only think about the impossibility of the situation. A thin, waifish woman like her shouldn't be able to knock two men around with that kind of ease. It was _impossible_.

In fact, it was deemed impossible enough that the lock on her memories was broken that very moment. The entire event of the previous night was then placed into her conscious memory again, and she could recall all of it.

After a minor freak-out in her lodgings when she had realised that it hadn't been a vague dream and magic was indeed real, the woman tried to make sense of what happened.

Recalling what the kind vigilante had done for her, healing her wounds by infusing her with some kind of golden light, gave her something to work with. After a few tries, she managed to call on the power again, making her veins glow a soft golden.

She couldn't actively do anything with it, it only served to passively increase her abilities, but it was still the greatest gift anyone had ever given her.

She didn't switch careers afterwards, as she understood she had to keep all of it a secret, but she did manage to make her own life and that of her fellow girls a little easier. Mainly by dealing with the aggressive customers.

Since those customers were often married or otherwise in position where one shouldn't visit women like her, the legal fall-out was minimal. She did discover though that her durability was also high enough to make her able to take bullets with relative ease.

All in all, Rikudou Reika could only be grateful to the magical vigilante, and hope she would meet him again, one day.

* * *

Shirou looked at the building across from him with a deep frown.

It would seem that he had found the hiding place of the Apostle at last, if the smell and even the general feel of death around the abandoned factory was any indication. He had made his way over here for the last thirty minutes or so, slowly circling around the building to mob up all of the remaining Dead. He was quite sure too that he had gotten all of them, save for a few stragglers that would die quickly when he would cut off the head of the snake, so to speak.

He hesitated in approaching the building though, for things were not quite as he had expected them to be.

If one had asked Shirou only yesterday what he thought a Dead Apostle's hide-out would look like, he would have answered something along the lines of a sheltered place, with plenty of shadow everywhere, easily defendable and with the smell of magic permeating through everything, as all Dead Apostles were capable of at least some kind of Magecraft, which they often used plentifully.

The first two points were right on the dot as far as the factory was concerned, but he couldn't for the life of him discover any traces of Magic. Wasn't he supposed to feel, or rather smell, plenty of it? Especially from the hiding place of an Apostle that appeared capable of terrorising an entire town with a great number of familiars.

Shirou had expected an old and powerful vampire living in a fortress protected by many Spells, Wards and Curses. Not an old factory that he could seemingly just walk into. There weren't even any guards posted outside.

So it was almost certainly a trap, laid out when the Apostle noticed its familiars being picked off. It was definitely still present in there, so it had to be planning something. Maybe Shirou was being watched right now even, while the monster plotted in the shadows.

Normally, he would have either snuck inside or executed a powerful and fast attack that would leave his opponents unable to react, but neither tactic would work if the thing inside knew of his presence already. Not to mention that there were at least ways to enter and leave the building, all of them trapped probably, through which the Apostle could make its escape.

Shirou was grateful that the building laid on the outskirts of town, allowing for more secrecy and minimising the chance of innocent people getting caught up in the fight, but it made him very noticeable as the only living human for quite some distance. Still, it wasn't like he could do anything about it, and that Apostle needed to go down regardless. He better get to it.

With that thought, Shirou pushed off from the building he had been standing on, taking a mighty jump straight at the factory. He landed in front of the main door, and channelled the mysterious power into the hammer in his hand, before unleashing a lightning bolt straight at said door.

The doors were blown inwards by the force of his attack, torn completely off their hinges, and were sent flying into the wall on the opposite side of the hangar. Wary of traps however, Shirou had elected to remain where he was for a few seconds, well away from the opening.

A wise decision, for not a second after his attack, a large vault dropped from somewhere on the ceiling to land on the space he would have stood on had he entered the building right away. It seemed to be quite a heavy one too. Not nearly enough to bring him down of course, but anyone without considerably augmented durability would have been killed on the spot.

It was strange though that it was a mundane trap, that probably functioned with motion or something like that, the door opening being the cue to drop the vault perhaps. He would have expected at least a bit of Magic to be involved, but such was apparently not the case. Shirou entered the building, slowly and warily, almost certain more traps were waiting for him.

He was once again proven right only seconds later, when he discovered a tripwire on the first set of stairs that lead directly to six guns that were poised to shoot at anyone tripping the wire. That would have killed an unprepared human, even a Magus, with ease.

Of course, no Magus, Enforcer, Executor, or otherwise would ever contemplate stepping inside a building with a Dead Apostle in it unprepared. Reinforcement alone could have made this very survivable, and Runes stitched in clothes or tattooed on skin could have made this no more than an annoyance. Certainly this Apostle knew that as well, but why was it even trying then? Hoping for a lucky strike perhaps? Or did it genuinely not know that its traps would be so ineffective?

On his way to the top floor, where the origin of the smell of death was located, Shirou discovered that the Apostle was definitely not taking half measures. He encountered more guns, a dozen explosives connected to doors, more explosives connected to the locks in those doors, a few tripwires on random steps, and even more heavy things falling from the ceiling when he opened the doors after disarming the bombs.

Shirou fortunately managed to spot most of them before he would trigger anything and was able to disable them. He had however accidentally triggered two bombs already. Those bombs had been placed very strategically, namely on doors were there had already been a trap, effectively making it a double trap. He'd learned to spot those very quickly, especially after a forklift truck of all things had almost fallen on his head after he had stepped through a door at the sixth floor.

The times he'd had a bomb exploding on him though did prove once and for all that such things were utterly useless against him now. Discarding the air-pressure from the explosions that had put him on the backfoot for a moment, he barely even felt anything beyond some heat and a little shrapnel bouncing off him.

When he got past the seventh floor though, things started to get progressively weirder, to the point where he almost believed himself to be in a videogame. There were motion sensors in the ground and in the walls that activated flamethrowers, pit falls with spikes at the bottom, saw blades coming from the ceiling and even an actual boulder sent rolling at him. There were even more guns, cages with a small number of the dead in them, it just went on and on.

There were even attempts at changing the factory into a maze, if the numerous sloppily erected walls on a couple of the floors were anything to go by. By that time however, Shirou was done playing games, and had smashed right through those walls.

Now, Shirou had never been one for video-games, but even would have been able to recognise that this Apostle had clearly played a little too many of them.

Dodging the nth boulder by just a hair, he had to admit that he had severely underestimated the Apostles' ability to protect itself without Magecraft. Admittedly, its defences were not stopping him, and would not have stopped other powerful Magi or groups of less powerful ones either, but anything below that would never have made it through. He dared say that even Kiritsugu would have been impressed by this.

It was also slightly concerning though. Defences like this couldn't be build in a short time, especially not since he would estimate that over 80% of the materials used where not from this factory itself. It must have taken quite a lot of time to collect it all and to put it together. This meant the Apostle had been allowed to run free for far too long. Far too many people must have died to make that possible, and it was high time Shirou put a decisive end to that.

Finally arriving at the top floor, Shirou glared at the last door in his way, contemplating on how to get past it. It was undoubtedly the most trapped door in the building, and the Apostle was probably lying in wait behind it, ready to attack. Shirou would either have to be extremely careful in entering, or he would have to use overwhelming force.

Before he could decide on a course of action however, as if to mock him for his frustration, that choice was taken out of his hands.

The door suddenly opened inwards. A head was stuck through the opening, with red eyes cautiously peering down the hall, until they landed on Shirou.

For a moment, for just the blink of an eye, neither being moved, Apostle staring at Magus, and Magus staring at Apostle. It was just a fraction of a second, but it was enough for Shirou to take in his opponent's form.

There was no denying that the man had been handsome once, with an angular face framed with black hair, with pleasing features and the part of his body that was visible being lean and toned. It was quite ruined now however, by the unnaturally pale complexion and sickened look, the air of filth and death around it, and the blackened veins that ran all over its body.

Shirou took in his opponent in under a second, but the Apostle apparently needed some more time, still remaining motionless. Capitalising on this mistake, Shirou kicked off from the ground, rushing towards the open door. The vampire then showed that it was greatly superior to its thralls, for it actually managed to follow him with its eyes, for the half a second that it took Shirou to cross the distance and slam into the door.

The result was precisely as one would expect. The door was instantly smashed to pieces, splinters being sent everywhere, and the Apostle went careening backwards, flying through the entire room and smashing into a wall dozens of yards away.

Not wanting to give it a chance to escape or do something creative, Shirou rushed forward again, swinging his hammer in an arc towards the creature, aiming to take its head off in one blow. Once more the vampire showed it was far beyond humanity and far beyond its thralls, as it managed to dodge his swing, if only by a hair, by jumping to the side, landing on its back on the ground.

"Curse you!" The Apostle cried, in a surprisingly smooth voice, attempting to crawl away, before remembering that it could walk bipedally as it jumped back onto its feet. "How did you get up here- no, how did you even find me?"

It received no answer, as talking in battle was a sin.

Realising Shirou wasn't going to say anything, the vampire pulled a grenade, an actual mundane grenade, from its belt, ripped out the pin, and threw it at Shirou, in a perfect straight throw.

Normally, he would have easily dodged something like that, but he needed to keep the pressure up, lest his enemy tried to get away. So instead of dodging, he caught the explosive and easily crushed the piece of iron, letting it go off in his hand.

The Apostle's eyes bulged at the sight, which made it look even more unhealthy, before it threw itself to the side again, running towards the corner, where, the armoured teen now saw, even more guns and explosives were stored.

Did it not have any other tricks that it could use? Certainly, it didn't actually think that mundane weapons would be enough to defeat him, right? Those traps back there had been well-thought out, and could have stopped a low-level Enforcer, but Shirou was not such an Enforcer. Those weapons would be useless against him.

This was again proven beyond a doubt when the Apostle grabbed a machine gun and unleashed a hail of bullets at Shirou, all of them harmlessly bouncing off from his armour and even from his skin.

"Die already!" The vampire spat in a mix of fear and anger, as it pulled out a remote and pressed a button, causing a door at the back of the room to open, revealing half a dozen of the Dead, who immediately charged at Shirou. He waited until they were almost on him and then swung Mjolnir in an arc, hitting all of them in one swing and reducing them to ash.

Upon turning around once more, Shirou spotted his enemy trying to reach a back door, no doubt intending to flee while he was occupied with its minions. He had no intention of letting it flee however, and unleashed another blast of lightning, hoping to incinerate it in one blow.

Unfortunately, the Apostle noticed the blast in the nick of time and actually managed to dodge, though the pressure wave from where the lightning struck the ground still sent it flying once more, away from the door it had been intending to flee through.

It crawled back to its feet swiftly however, and then shot Shirou a crazy grin while standing up straight.

"So, the fucking great hero has finally come to slay the beast? Well, I anticipated this already, fucker." It howled in a victorious tone. "I will not die here, and I won't be taken back to them. I will become more powerful than any vampire has ever been, even Dracula, and I will have my revenge one way or another, fuckface."

' _Them?'_

The Apostle pressed another button on the remote, and Shirou heard a creaking sound, as if a garage door was being opened in a room beside this one. More of the Dead poured out of their hiding places a second later, yet this time they were not running towards him, but rather towards the stairs.

While Shirou was looking at this, the Apostle continued its rambling. "This might seem random to a fucking fool like you, but I know how you shitty heroes think. You'll have to choose between them or me, and we both already know you'll go after them. Think of how many people they'll kill otherwise…"

Shirou tuned the vampire out after that, as it kept talking about villains, heroes, and the hundred rules of being an Evil Overlord.

It would seem it had no knowledge of the Moonlit World at all, that was pretty clear by now. If its strange fascination with becoming stronger than Dracula wasn't enough of an indication of its ignorance, then the fact that it believed that an Enforcer or Executor would prioritise saving random people over killing it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that it knew nothing.

How then had it managed to survive that long? How had it become so powerful?

Questions for a later time, Shirou decided, as he raised a hand and pointed towards the fleeing creatures. He then drew the Rune of Fire that had given him such impressive results back when he did his first power testing, invoking its name in a stern voice.

"Sowilo!"

The Rune of the Sun, the Rune of cleansing fire. Powered by the mysterious power inside of Shirou and enhanced by his incredible aptitude for Runes as a whole, it unleashed a torrent of fire on the Dead.

Even though the familiars of the Apostle had been progressively getting away from him at speeds a normal human couldn't hope to match, the firestorm caught up to them easily, overtaking them in moments and burning away everything in its path, leaving only some charred remains.

Having dealt with the immediate problem, Shirou faced the Apostle again, who was staring slackjawed at the destruction that had been wrought. Taking advantage of his opponent's lapse in attention, Shirou jumped forward again, throwing himself bodily against the vampire. The poor Apostle, to stupefied to react on time, was unable to even just brace itself before it was slammed against a wall hard enough to shatter the bones of any normal person.

It did not go down that easily though. When Shirou took a step back to get himself some room to manoeuvre, it lashed out at him with its sharp claws, aiming to rip the teen's throat out. Shirou blocked the swing with his forearm, neatly catching the claws on his vambraces. He then threw a punch at the Apostles head, which was dodged at the very last second.

The vampire jumped forward, pushing itself off the wall with its feet in order to gain momentum to throw Shirou on his back. He simply caught the Apostle's wrists however, and stopped it dead in its tracks.

For a moment, the vampire struggled in the hero's hold, until Shirou decided to emulate Thor for a short moment and head-butted his enemy so fiercely that it was once more knocked into the wall behind it. Not giving it a chance to regain its bearings, Shirou stepped forward and launched a haymaker into the Apostle's midriff.

The air was forced out of the undead's lungs, making it wheeze to get some back. Its efforts were rendered useless however when a hand grabbed its throat in a vice grip. The vampire was lifted bodily off the ground, pulled away from the wall for a moment, and then slammed back into it.

It wasn't lethal, not to something like an Apostle, but it would still hurt like hell, which was exactly what Shirou had been going for. Inexperienced warriors tended to lose their rational mind when in pain, and he had already determined that this Apostle was inexperienced indeed.

Watching impassively as the Apostle struggled feebly against his grip, pained choking noises the only thing that were audible, Shirou contemplated whether to kill it at once or to interrogate it first.

He certainly had no qualms about killing it, or any others of its kind. Apostles were not human, they were not animals, or even plants. They were monsters, plain and simple. They had lost all of their humanity the moment they had been turned, and killing the abomination that came from such a process was the greatest mercy one could show.

Shirou had heard such plenty of times from his father, as well as any other source, so he was inclined to believe it.

The only reason Shirou was even contemplating leaving it alive for now was because it was no threat to him at all and he still had some questions it might be able to answer. One of the most prominent being how in the name of Asgard it had managed to survive this long without any knowledge of magic or the Moonlit World.

But the most important would no doubt be inquiring about who the Apostle had meant when he had mentioned ' _them'_.

Sorting everything out like that in his mind made it clear to Shirou what the proper course of action would be at that moment. He had dropped the ball back in Fuyuki when he had mostly refrained from interrogating the criminals that had smelled like magic, and as such he'd had to break into the police station to rectify the mistake. He wasn't going to mess up like that again.

Shirou let out wisps of the mysterious power, as well as some of the Prana that he now had in such abundance, creating an oppressive aura around him, very well suited for intimidation.

"Apostle." He started, noticing the brief look of confusion the use of that word got him. "When I was outside of this building, I noticed just how powerful you are. I saw and fought the countless minions that you controlled. Your aura was present all over the city. Yet now that I have you in front of me, I see nothing of that power that I believed you to possess. Your physical strength is severely lacking, your defences are average at best, and your ignorance about your own kind is immense. How did you ever come to be like this?"

A flash of defiance sparked to life in the vampire's eyes, but a dark look from Shirou snuffed it right out. He loosened the grip he had on the creature's throat in anticipation of an answer, but still held it firmly enough to keep it from escaping.

The Apostle had never been a brave man, even before its untimely death. It had spent his life running away from its problems, never being able to face them. This fundamental aspect of its character had not changed in death. It was still the coward it had always been, and its resolve broke to pieces when confronted by someone so much stronger than it.

"It was no fucking vampire that did this to me." It squeaked, still thrashing in vain now that its lungs were able to get air again. "I was just selling dru- just minding my own fucking business, when a bunch of motherfucking criminals attacked me. The next thing I know, I was in a room with two wackjobs. It's all their fucking fault, not mine, really not, I swear."

Shirou took a sharp breath. ' _Kidnapped by criminals? Of the streets? Could it be that those two are the ones I have been looking for?'_

It was a hopeful thought, and the best clue he'd found so far, so without further ado, he pulled the still thrashing Apostle closer to him, ignoring its surprised yell at the sudden movement.

"What more do you know?" He asked sharply, now using every intimidation technique his dad had ever taught him, looming over the Apostle despite being at least a head shorter than it. "Do you know where you were? Do you know who did this to you?"

The answer came significantly quicker this time, partly because of the increased intimidation, but also because the vampire was glad to finally be able to vent its frustration.

"Fuckers said they wanted to experiment." It hissed, clearly affronted anyone had dared do such a thing to it. "Said they were going to perfect some shitty procedure, told me that I was a fucking testing subject, just an animal. Can you believe that? Motherfuckers thought I was just an animal. Me!"

Its voice shifted from affronted to borderline hysterical. "There were others like them too, three of them, stupid fucks visited sometimes. They never even looked at me. I was nothing to them, nothing at all. They just hurt me over and over again, until they had changed me into this."

The Apostle went off on a rant about unfairness, about his 'rights', but Shirou wasn't really listening anymore.

Five Magi. Two of them engaged in Dead Apostle research, and three others with unknown professions. It was more information at once than everything he'd found so far put together.

The realisation that two of them were engaging into such a forbidden art was worrying. Shirou could understand the temptation of studying creatures so far beyond humanity, but it was incredibly dangerous, both because of the research itself, which could actually eat you, but also because neither the Church nor the Clocktower appreciated its members looking into one of the enemies of mankind, and hunted those who did with fervour.

They had apparently failed to find two of said practitioners however, and now those Philosophers had settled in Japan.

It wasn't uncommon for Sealing Designees to run from their fate of experimentation or lock-down. Upon running, they were usually divided into two classes, Hermits and Philosophers.

Hermits were those that quietly did their work in a secluded space, away from anyone else, while not endangering the secret of Thaumaturgy. The Enforcers generally left the Hermits alone, not actively pursuing them, maybe giving it a try every once in a while depending on the research itself.

Philosophers on the other hand were those who actively involved those around them in their work, often against their will. These kind of Designees were a danger to the secret of Thaumaturgy, and were thus hunted all the time by Enforcers and Executor alike.

He, Emiya Shirou, now had the 'fortune' to stumble upon not one, not two, but five Philosophers at once, who had managed to set up a very efficient scheme to obtain specimens for their no-doubt sick and wrong experiments.

"-more powerful than even you."

Realising that he was neglecting his conversation partner, Shirou looked back at the vampire, who choose that moment to start laughing maniacally, gloating about how it was stronger than anyone else, apparently completely forgetting that it was at his mercy at the moment.

"I manged to escape. All by myself." It giggled hysterically, looking very pleased with itself. "Fucking ripped myself loose when the fuckers weren't paying attention, and dodged those white-haired, red-eyed freaks. Getting outside was a fucking piece of cake."

'… _A little more detail would be appreciated'_ , Shirou didn't say, instead choosing to remain silent and let it speak.

"Must be feeling really fucking smug, those guys in that ugly shitty manor of theirs, at the edge of a city that seemed so idyllic there in the mountains. Don't know where it was, I just ran away for a long time, not looking at any stupid road signs or anything. I eventually managed to get here, in this fucking town. Against all odds, I survived this hostile world that was out to kill me."

That was slightly useful at least.

"You think you have me pinned down, don't you?" The vampire continued, now grinning maliciously, looking like it had some kind of secret that it was about to reveal. "But you don't! No one can hold me down, not anymore. After escaping their clutches, I learned of what I was now. I craved blood, so I feasted on it, made myself stronger and stronger every day. I discovered so many new things and I promised I would thank those whackjobs when I find them again, right before killing and enslaving them of course."

"You killed hundred of people, enslaved their corpses, you mercilessly slaughtered and turned them, simply to have a shot at revenge? On people you don't even know the slightest about?" Shirou interrupted, his mood changing from annoyed at the Apostle's cowardness and arrogance to actual burning anger at its vile deeds.

"Sure did." The thing crowed, looking proud of itself. "And don't worry, I'll find them. When I have minions everywhere, no one can hide from me. I have read Dracula and seen those films and anime that portray Vampires. I'm already better than most of them, and one day, I'll be as powerful as Alucard! In fact, I'm already more powerful. You think you fucking have me down, but you haven't fucking seen fucking anything yet!

With those words, the Apostles hands wrapped around Shirou's wrists, as it tried to pull the hands off its throat. At the same time, it legs came up to kick Shirou repeatably in the stomach. The attacks were stronger than before, by at least a half, but they still failed to even faze Shirou, who didn't even need to react at all.

Ultimately, it was more awkward than troublesome.

Once more the Apostles eyes bulged out of their sockets, now that it was again confronted with something it hadn't expected. Its thrashing and flailing became increasingly desperate, as it realised that even its best efforts where useless.

"What the-? How-? No! I am stronger than you, better than you. You can't kill me!" It screeched, now resorting to attempted biting and clawing, which was no more effective than its other tactics had been. "You won't kill me, you won't. You're a shitty hero after all. I am only a poor victim, I swear. T-t-they did this t-to m-me, y-you must be-believe me, please."

The Apostle descended into outright pathetic begging, but Shirou was deaf to it. In the short conversation that they'd had, the vampire had proved itself a despicable being. It had not even tried to hold on to its humanity, even though it had been granted that unique chance when it had skipped the mindless Ghoul-phase of its turning. It had just started murdering, in a vain attempt at revenge and out of a desire to become powerful.

No, that wasn't correct. Revenge didn't even enter the equation. It was using that as an excuse, but this Apostle was one of those types that craved authority over others, and it would stop at nothing to get it. It was vile existence, one Shirou had to destroy for the good of all.

"No, don't! I-I can reward y-you. I h-have money! Its not my fault, I swear-"

Shirou once more channelled the mysterious power, calling upon its cleansing aspect, just as he had done before while he had healed the green-haired woman. Unlike with her though, this cleansing was not meant to heal and invigorate. Its light was not soft and golden, rather it was a harsh silver-white, giving off an unforgiving aura of power.

The white light flowed from Shirou's hand into the Dead Apostle, spreading through its entire body until the light began shining out of its eyes and mouth. Barely two seconds after that, the body crumbled into dust.

His job finally done, Shirou turned his back on the pile of dust on the ground and walked away. He did not look back. There was no need to.

* * *

Half an hour later, Shirou stood outside again. The reason it took so long was because he had taken the time to deactivate all traps in the building, to prevent other visitors from losing their lives.

The smell of death was letting up now. Even while standing as close to the hide-out as he was, Shirou clearly noticed the graveyard-smell disappearing now that its origin had been removed.

The missing person-reports were thrown into a trash bin, as he no longer needed them. It was... upsetting, how many of those reports there were, how many people had been killed by this creature, a being that had its chance at retaining its humanity, a chance most Apostles never had, but had chosen to squander it, going straight to killing without a second of hesitation.

It made Shirou feel… unpleasant, to be so blatantly reminded that outright evil people also existed. People that didn't deserve to be saved. The kind his father had spoken of, in one of their few heart-to-heart conservations.

Being a very experienced hitman and assassin-for-hire, Kiritsugu had known that some people just weren't worth saving. Some people were just evil for no discernible reason, and putting them down was all you could do. He knew that he absolutely had to teach his son that those people had to be removed, one way or another, no matter how much his son wanted to save everyone.

He wouldn't let his boy be killed by the very people he had saved, when those people inevitably turned against him.

Shirou didn't understand his father's words back then, but now, after several months of intense crime-fighting, hunting Sealing Designees, and having faced one of such individuals that were beyond saving, he could say he understood a little better.

Nevertheless, Shirou lamented the fact that he had taken a life, however twisted that life may have been. It was yet another reason for him to dislike Urayasu, next to the high crime-rates and the immense filthiness.

He had to admit though that the city was not at fault for him having taken his first life, and now that he had put most of the criminals behind bars and had removed the origin of the immense number of disappearances the city had to deal with over the past months, maybe it could become a better place in the future.

That didn't mean the city wasn't a huge dumpster, because it was.

Shirou frowned, reluctant to leave the city with such a huge problem still present, but unsure what he could do about all the filth and waste. That was when Mjolnir came through yet again, showing him a Runic Array that would be able to clean up an entire city.

It would slowly destroy the useless waste lying around, while 'encouraging' people to clean up anything that was actually useful or recyclable. It would remove chemical components on the streets, in the water, and in the air. It would remove gum, blood, and other stains, and it would cure the people, the animals, and even the plants of the damage that the pollution had wrought upon them.

This would happen over time, slowly, and more important, unnoticeably to anyone who wasn't aware already of the spell's existence. The secret of Thaumaturgy wouldn't be revealed that way.

Shirou took a few seconds to marvel at the incredible Runic Array, one that could potentially match the work of the great masters of old, the Rune-Crafters of Ireland and the gods of Scandinavia, before taking a look at the downsides.

The most prominent downside was the insane cost of powering the Array. Drawing and activating it would already cost a lot of power, but even after that, it had to be supplied constantly. If he ever stopped supplying for even a moment, the Runic Array would cease to exist immediately, and he would have to apply it all over again. Keeping it active for long enough to clean up a city would be an incredible drain on his reserves, but Shirou estimated that he could miss the power, at least until the city was mostly or even completely clean again.

It took a little more than ten minutes to cast the spell, as he had to carve the Runes into the ground at a secluded spot, but its effects were instantly noticeable. The air around the array became visibly cleaner, and the stains on the ground surrounding him disappeared without a trace. It was slow-going, but the spell made up for that through its incredible meticulousness.

Shirou smiled at the sight, happy that he had been able to help the city and its inhabitants not only through fighting crime, but also through cleaning the city itself.

Not to mention he had finally found some clues related to the Magi he was hunting.

Finally, he had made some actual progress.

* * *

The Lord could only pace in ever-increasing agitation, the carpet in his room being slowly worn out by his steps, as he found himself at a total loss. A very unusual situation for him, at least in recent times.

Despite the hope-giving report of several weeks back concerning the criminal he'd been trying to catch for years now, they hadn't made any progress ever since.

It was frustrating, and doubly so to admit it, but his target had buried itself deep, far beyond the reach of him or the Enforcers. He knew Joseph Balefor was somewhere in the one country he never wanted to visit again, but that was as far as his knowledge went. After having arrived in Japan, the murderer had seemingly disappeared entirely.

Frustrating, frustrating to no end.

He had half-considered going over there himself, but he was smart enough to know he would only hinder the professionals in their work. He would follow later, when the target had been found, in order to drag the scumbag to the Clocktower for his trial and to get the Balefor-Crest back. Until then, there was very little he could.

Sighing deeply, the Lord put the matter out of his mind for now. Getting annoyed by it would only be a waste of time and effort, not to mention he was expected to attend today's duel in a few minutes, though only as a spectator, fortunately.

After locking his papers in a drawer, he quickly combed his hair and washed his face. It wouldn't do to look anything less than perfect after all when meeting up with his fellow Lords. Showing weakness around them would only be blood in the water for the more ambitious among them.

With that done, he left his office, on his way towards the Arena, perhaps one of the most famous areas of the Clocktower.

When one's honour was slighted or when one wanted to fight someone for training or when agreements couldn't be worked out in a peaceful way, the Arena was often the solution. It was a place to fight, where differences were settled in an aggressive way, and this morning, a one-sided slaughter was about to begin.

No one would really die though, people rarely died in the ring, but it was certain that someone was going to take a huge blow to his ego. Perhaps, if the members of the Clocktower were lucky today, it would even prove fatal to the idiot.

It was a rather harsh thought, but the idiot had brought it upon himself. The pompous fool had asked to marry Lorelei Barthomeloi, the dreaded Queen of the Clocktower, the strongest Magus of the generation, even though he had been strongly advised against it multiple times. Upon having his proposal be denied, as had been expected, the fool had demanded she reconsider. When the Queen had refused again, he had challenged her to a duel, as was his right, demanding that if she forfeited or lost, she would marry him.

Suffice to say that the idiot was going to suffer, a lot.

The only reason he was being humoured at all by the Barthomeloi-family, instead of just kicking out of the Clocktower, was because the Queen was under pressure. Many Lords in the Clocktower were insisting that she marry someone soon, so she could produce powerful offspring and forge important bonds between families, solidifying her authority and enforcing the status-quo.

Barthomeloi had been able to stave them off quite efficiently however by claiming she would only marry someone strong enough to face her in battle, which was close to impossible to anyone but a few.

Zelretch would be able to defeat her, but he wouldn't be interested in the fight, much less the marriage.

A select few Apostle Ancestors might be able to defeat her, but they would be equally uninterested, not to mention they were smart enough to stay well away from the Queen.

Of course, ORT would definitely win, but the possibility of any alien god fighting Lorelei Barthomeloi in the Arena, willingly adhering to the rules, was absolutely laughable. Who knew though, maybe the Queen would like having a god at her side?

One thing was for sure: she was definitely not going to marry today. Everyone knew that, except that one fool apparently.

The lord briskly walked into the Arena, ignoring the shouts and whistles from the Enforcers and the 'cultured conversations' from the nobles in favour of brooding some more about Balefor still being at large.

He was aware that he could be considered a luckier man than most, having survived things that he'd had no right of surviving, but today, he prayed for just a bit more fortune coming his way.

For there to be some progress with the case of his friend's murder.

* * *

 **Author's note.**

 **First we have a family dinner at the Osaki's (plus Yomaura, who's an honorary Osaki anyway), where Koyo's newly introduced daughters show that the secret of the vigilante is not very secret after all.**

 **After that, a closer look into the mind of Balefor, and a glimpse of his past. We now see a bit of what drives him, and what his goal is. Now, for all of you who want to shout that his goal is unreachable, that is completely true, but Joseph doesn't believe that, so he's going to continue.**

 **Also, for all those that want to say now that I have made Lorelei Barthomeloi too nice, with her aversion to amoral actions, well, no. She is not nice at all in my story. Lorelei Barthomeloi is a first-rate Magus, the Queen, and has a life-time of brain-washing by her family behind her. The only thing I did in my story is letting the brain-washing stick less to her mind than in canon and most fanon, and add a kinder nature to her underneath all that. That opens up the possibility for character development.**

 **Our dear Magi also make plans to get Rin in their hands. For those of you that wonder why: they want to have a Magus to either experiment on, or to serve as their lapdog if her talent is great enough. Now, we know that she is a prodigy, so it will probably be lapdog, but experimentation is still a real possibility.**

 **It is also a test to see if they can pull something like this off. If they can, they might just try again, and again, and again, and so on.**

 **But that's not the only thing they have been doing. They all have their own projects, with among them some Dead Apostle research. One of their specimens escaped, and now Shirou had to pick up the slack, which he does successfully.**

 **Shirou also meets a certain green-haired woman. If you've watched/read Apocrypha, you'll know who she is. She now has her own abilities, but don't fret, she is not suddenly overpowered. She is strong enough to handle mundane threats, but any experienced Magus will still kick her ass seven different ways to Sunday.**

 **She will remember Shirou quite fondly however, which will be quite convenient later down the line.**

 **We see the vampire in his very own hide-out in a factory. To get in, Shirou had to pass all kinds of traps that seemed to come straight out of a video-game. There is no real explanation as to how the Apostle managed to build that. It's plot-convenience.**

 **The battle between Shirou and the Apostle was very one-sided, but that was the intention from the beginning. I can imagine you all want some real fights, but I cannot make an OP-Shirou and still have him struggle with a run-of-the-mill Apostle. This was mostly to show just how strong Shirou already is.**

 **The vampire had some information for Shirou, after which Shirou disposed of the Apostle with his newly-found Cleansing Power. I thought of this Cleansing Power after reading that Thor healed a man with Terminal Cancer once. That put the idea of healing in my mind, and from there it was a small step to a Cleansing Power.**

 **Keep in mind what I have said. It only works on what the Shirou-Force, thus Shirou himself, considers to be unnatural. It would not work on Magi or Heroic Spirits or the like, but very well against things like Dead Apostles and Zoukens. In theory also against Types from other planets, but those are several leagues too high for now.**

 **An example of something it would not work on is for instance the Caster of Fate Zero. Despite his evilness and insanity, the Cleansing Power would not work on him at all, since he is not necessarily unnatural (at least, not in Shirou's opinion, which is really the only thing that matters). The monsters he summons however _are_ susceptible to the power. **

**For the image on the Apostle dying, think of Supernatural when Angels kill Demons. For those that do not know Supernatural, look up something along the lines of: 'Supernatural angel kills demon' and click youtube or something. Keep in mind that in this story, the light will also spread over the body and that at the end there is only ash left, instead of an entire body that drops to the ground.**

 **Shirou makes an effort to clean the city, which will work quite well. It will be repeated many more times. Why? Because he needs a positive way to get Gaia's attention. That will not happen for a long time yet, but it is the first step.**

 **I have for now decided on a mother-hen Gaia, but if the general consensus is that you all want something else, then I can take that into consideration. No antagonist though. The Earth Goddess will end up firmly on Shirou's side.**

 **The 'mysterious' Lord hunting Balefor for personal reasons also returns, to give us a bit of insight into the Clocktower.**

 **That's all for now.**

 **Ted.**


	12. In the Water

**In the Water**

Magecraft was, all things considered, quite a useful tool at times.

While Magecraft was by nature something that could be copied by normal means, it was undoubtedly far more impressive and convenient to, for instance, raise an earthen wall with nothing but an incantation and a wave of a hand than to spend several hours digging with a shovel. Not to mention that Wards, Curses and Runes did things that admittedly could be done through mundane means, but never with the same efficiency.

Granted, Magecraft was a dangerous profession too, extremely difficult and with a great chance to kill you, but there was no denying that it was a damn handy tool to possess. Very few of those with the ability to use it ever gave up on it, with good reason.

Magecraft however also left traces, clear traces, that could easily be tracked by others. Every Magus and Sorcerer in existence had at least some talent at sensing the Mystical Arts being used or having been used around them, but there were some that took that ability to a whole other level. Those were the individuals that could track down the traces like blood hounds on a trail. A select few individuals that were just more perceptive to the world at large.

Those beings, more often inhuman than not, were a step above the rest when it came to tracking down irregularities. Even if those without this talent would train for years, they would still not be able to match their raw talent.

Emiya Shirou was one of these individuals, with the ability to 'smell' Magecraft quite clearly, even from a large distance. His brain would automatically translate traces of Magecraft to a plethora of different scents, with the added advantage that he could still flawlessly distinguish each scent even if he smelled a thousand at once, and that the scents couldn't be masked in any conventional way, such as perfume.

It was an incredibly convenient talent to have. It had already proven its worth with the criminals smelling of magic, and it had significantly contributed to finding the Dead Apostle in Urayasu. Without this particular talent, Shirou would still be grasping in the dark, without a single clue that there was a group of Magi running around his country abducting people left and right, and he would never have been able to find that Apostle in time.

The fact that creatures like the Apostle and the Magi were out there weighed heavily on Shirou's mind, and it also worried him. In order to ensure there were no nasty surprises like that waiting within his city, Shirou had spent over a week wandering Fuyuki-City after he'd come back from slaying the Apostle in Urayasu, sniffing out any and all traces of Thaumaturgy or other strange things that resided within the city's borders.

He hadn't found much of note. Nearly all traces of Magecraft he had found could be connected to either Tohsaka, the Matou-family, or the church, which meant Kotomine Kirei.

He had made an effort of course to remain unspotted by all three, but he had taken extra care around Kotomine. Kiritsugu had been unforgiving in his recount of the man's actions, and more so in the description of the man himself. Shirou was not planning on facing the priest until he was certain that he would win in any possible kind of confrontation between them.

However, there had also been a few surprises and inexplicable things. The many 'pieces' of Matou Zouken all over town for instance. Those 'parts' of the old man were seemingly everywhere, even under and around Tohsaka's house and in the vicinity of the church. He had even smelled their taint, if less intense, on Sakura, which was to be expected, as she lived with the old man.

Seeing that Tohsaka and Kotomine were apparently being spied on by Zouken without them noticing had prompted Shirou to do a very thorough search around his own estate. To his relief, he had found nothing. Mjolnir had told him afterwards that such a thing was only to be expected, since the wards would keep away anything that had no business in his estate.

Still, just to be sure, he had added a few more Runes to the defences, mainly focused on stopping small pests, which those 'pieces' definitely qualified as. Shirou had quickly discovered those pieces were actually worms, the familiars of the Matou-family. They definitely qualified as 'pests', and should be stopped by his improved Wards.

He had also added several power-masking Runes to the Wards, to ensure Tohsaka wouldn't find out about him, as well as some Runes that just generally strengthened the defences. With all that combined, he shouldn't have to worry about his house being invaded until the Caster of the next Grail War would be summoned, which was still decades away.

The worms weren't the only strange thing he had been able to find though, nor were they the strangest. Shirou had also discovered that Kotomine wasn't the only one inhabiting the church. He had detected a very much magical presence in there, and despite his best attempts, he hadn't been able to identify the smell of it at all.

It had some traces of the smell from the Fuyuki Memorial Park, where the Great Fire had taken place, but that could very well have been caused by overexposure to that place. The scent of that park easily stuck to someone, and he had smelled plenty of mundane people carrying the scent of Angra Mainyu, so that was nothing new or particularly damning.

Next to that, more distinctive perhaps, were some whiffs of the scent of gold, a bit of steel, and something bittersweet that brought to mind extreme arrogance, mixed with an overbearing scent that indicated an overwhelming amount of power that kept even the worms of Zouken far away from it.

The last, and most unnerving, aspect of the smell though was something that brought to mind boundless might and nigh-unlimited authority. It was somewhat similar to Mjolnir's very own smell actually. In one word, it smelled _Divine,_ and not the good kind. Which was very strange, since the Age of the Gods was over, himself notwithstanding, and the scent was too strong to belong to a mere descendant of a demigod.

Shirou didn't have a clue as to what it could be, but he did know that whatever it was, it was Strong, with a well-deserved capital S. Stronger than anything he had ever smelled, save for Mjolnir itself, enough to obliterate Shirou if he got into a confrontation with it.

It was yet one more reason for him to avoid the church altogether, though he stood ready to interfere should the being decide it was done being passive. Currently however, that was hardly necessary, as Shirou had determined already that it wasn't present in the city anymore, and hadn't been for quite some time.

It would return though, Shirou was sure of it.

That had concluded the search for Magecraft within Fuyuki-City. Next to the already known Magi, the 'pieces' of Zouken, and the presence in the church, he hadn't found anything worth mentioning.

At least, until today.

When Shirou had woken up this morning, after another night of crime-fighting, he'd had no inkling yet that something was amiss in his city. He had prepared breakfast with Sakura and he had eaten it while talking with a bit with Fuji-nee and Sakura, before heading off to school. Just like any other day.

He had told Sakura to be careful on the way and had asked her to give Ayako his greetings, as the girl seemed to be avoiding him. Nothing too obvious, but for some reason, she had tried her best to keep conversations between them relatively short, as she looked away often and sometimes even ran off whenever he gave her a compliment.

He didn't know what was going on, and when he had asked Sakura, she had just smiled mysteriously, and a little sadly, and told him not to worry about it, before promising she would give Ayako his greetings. She had departed after that, and Shirou left as well after locking the door.

On his way to school however, Shirou had an unfortunate encounter with a certain someone he would rather stay far away from. Since retreating had no longer been an option without seeming suspicious, as he was already within her sights, and there was no chance he'd be able to do any kind of trick to save himself without her noticing, Shirou had been forced to cross paths with _her_. The ever-dreaded, by him at least, Tohsaka Rin.

As always upon encountering Tohsaka, Shirou had kept his Circuits and the mysterious power dormant inside of him. Once more, she'd not even suspected a thing, not even glancing at him, though she did lightly brush against him in passing.

Strange that. He was quite sure he had given her enough space to pass, but it almost seemed as if she had purposely moved closer to him during her approach. It was most likely just his imagination though. They had probably both just miscalculated their path in relation to the other and had collided as a result. Wouldn't be the first time Shirou had walked into someone by accident. Ayako came to mind.

He would have merrily continued on his way afterwards, dismissing the Second Owner from his thoughts, if he hadn't then suddenly noticed _it_.

No, not a certain Clown in the sewer, but a very faint, barely noticeable scent. A scent of an unknown Magecraft. Something that didn't belong in his city.

It didn't smell at all like Tohsaka or her work. He was familiar enough with her scent to exclude that possibility immediately. Tohsaka's scent always carried traces of smoke and ash, and fresh air, clear water, damp earth, and a certain 'nothingness' that he had learned to associate with Ether, coming together in a pleasant mix. Something that perfectly fit the black-haired girl, who was an Average One. He could still smell that scent now, even with her being about three dozen steps away.

This unknown scent however smelled more like vanity, a biting, lemon-like smell, and something else, something very similar to a Dead Apostle's scent. The origin of the strange smell probably wasn't an Apostle themselves, but they had certainly come into contact with Apostles, and quite often too. A deep breath revealed its position, floating in the air several dozen meters behind Tohsaka.

Shirou showed no sign of having noticed anything unusual. He just kept walking with the same expression on his face, with the same pace and speed, bot allowing a single muscle in his face to twitch. He momentarily entertained the notion that someone was perhaps trying to follow _him_ , but he discarded that thought quickly. He would have surely noticed someone stalking him much sooner than this, not to mention no one in the Moonlit World had any reason to follow him, yet.

His theory was confirmed when the origin of the lemon smell passed over him without ever hampering or stopping in its flight, clearly indicating Tohsaka as the target. Shirou, who had no doubt this was bad news, momentarily pondered on what he should do.

On one hand, this wasn't his business at all. If someone was following the Second Owner of Fuyuki City, then he, being unaffiliated with either the Clock Tower or the Church, didn't have any right to interfere, except by informing said Second Owner, which he wasn't going to do of course.

On the other hand, it wasn't as if he'd been a very law-abiding citizen these past months to begin with. It was clear something was wrong here, likely to the detriment of Tohsaka herself, and he had never been one to follow the rules when that meant he would leave someone in trouble. The choice whether to do nothing and let Tohsaka deal with everything herself, or interfere and aid her, wasn't a choice, at least not to him.

Shirou did an about-face and walked in the opposite direction of where he previously had been going, now stalking the stalker, making sure he stayed out of sight. This merry, slow chase continued for a short while, until they passed by a small park. A small collection of trees and shrubbery, one of a few inside of Fuyuki's borders.

Seeing a chance to end this chase prematurely, Shirou quickly told hold of the rainclouds above their general position and then made it pour right above Tohsaka's head. After the girl's anticipated squeak of surprise, Shirou saw how she swiftly took shelter under the trees, thus remaining stationary for now, which also forced her pursuer to stay where it was.

The origin of the lemon-scent moved into the trees as well, a fair distance away from Tohsaka, yet close enough to keep observing her. A perfect opportunity for Shirou to get a look at what exactly he had been chasing.

Moving in from the opposite direction of where Tohsaka was standing relative to the pursuer, Shirou quickly got it in his sights. It was seated on a low branch of a tree now, well-hidden from Tohsaka's viewpoint, but very visible from his own. It was quite an ugly little thing. Ball-shaped, with bat-wings and no other discerning characteristics. A construct, he would guess, hastily put together with admittedly fine materials. Something that had been enabled of flight and spying capabilities by spells.

In short, a Magus' familiar. One that had been build specifically for the purpose of spying on Tohsaka.

Quite bold of them. Shirou might be keeping his distance from her at all times, but he was well aware of the sheer power and great talent she possessed. Not to mention the fact that she was an Average One from an old family with an above-average Crest. Trying to pull anything on her, especially within Fuyuki-City and even more so in her Workshop, would more often result in failure than in success.

That didn't even mention the fact that it was forbidden for Magi to stalk each other like this. What purpose did it serve anyway? Based on his own experiences, Shirou would say this whole situation looked like someone was preparing to abduct Tohsaka, but that was even more forbidden. Surely, no Magus would even try?

Unless…

Shirou's gaze turned frigid, his hands balled at his sides, and the clouds became progressively darker, spreading out from their position to cover the entire park.

…Unless those who send this familiar were the _Magi,_ the ones he'd been chasing so far.

It was quite the leap in logic, he knew, but there was nothing that excluded the possibility and very few things that could otherwise explain the presence of this familiar. The more he thought about it, the more likely it actually seemed. Moving on from just abducting mundane people to start kidnapping Magi, like Tohsaka, who, despite being a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy, was an almost ideal target for them. She still lived alone after all, without any real allies, making her vulnerable to scum like that.

They were really a lot bolder than he had anticipated, or rather, too confident for their own good. Actually abducting a Second Owner was bound to call down the wrath of the Clocktower on them when the Magus Association found out about it, and find out about it they would.

There was of course a possibility that he was wrong, that the Magi he was chasing were not in any way involved, but that changed little about the current situation. Whoever was spying on Tohsaka, they were breaking the law and surely didn't intent anything good. He would put a stop to their plans, no matter who they were.

Shirou inspected the familiar a bit more thoroughly, attempting to find something that could perhaps lead him to its makers. No such luck though. The spells on it were incredibly basic and weak, barely giving him anything to work with, while the materials were most likely important from all kinds of places around the world.

In short, the construct was of no use to him, so he better destroy it. No sense in letting them gather information about their target after all. At least, no more than they already had.

He reached forward and placed his hand on the thing, before utterly crushing it by closing his fist, feeling the spells come undone under his power.

The destruction had been swift and total. The makers of the familiar had not been able to see anything and were now probably biting their nails in nervousness and alarm. Excellent, maybe they would realise now that they were not free to do everything they wanted without suffering the consequences.

Shirou resolved to keep his eyes open for more of these things in the future. If one had been sent, then it was more than likely others would follow. He would have to destroy them all. It might tip off the Magi that someone was on to them, but right now, denying them information about Tohsaka was more important than preserving the element of surprise.

Satisfied with his work, Shirou dismissed the rain clouds again, before turning around to resume his way to school. Before he could even leave the park however, he was addressed by an extremely unwelcome voice, making his freeze in his tracks.

"Excuse me." The voice said from his left, mistrust and caution clearly audible in it. "Didn't I already see you a few streets back?"

Shirou looked back, right in the face of Tohsaka Rin, the one person who he did not want to have sneaking up on him at this moment.

It didn't seem like she had seen him destroying the familiar, fortunately, because then she would be asking entirely different questions, but even foregoing that, he was not supposed to be here, and Tohsaka knew it too.

"We did indeed cross each other just now." Shirou answered, thinking quickly for a correct answer. "You almost walked into me, remember?"

Tohsaka blinked at his frank admission, probably having expected him to deny it, but then narrowed her eyes again in suspicion, while Shirou wracked his brain for a reason for him to be here that had nothing to do with Magecraft, familiars, or deep dark secrets that would get a certain someone a one-way trip towards a first-rate Magus' workshop for experimentation.

"Then why are you here?" Tohsaka demanded, looking even more mistrustful than before. "If you were going in the other direction, which you were, then you shouldn't have ended up here. Don't tell me you were stalking me! What, were you hoping to take advantage of me?"

"W-What?" Shirou exclaimed, almost taking a step backwards in shock as Tohsaka revealed the cause of her suspicion towards him. "No! I wasn't following you. I was just seeking shelter from the rain in this park, nothing more."

What he told her was mostly true. He hadn't been following _her_ , but rather the familiar that happened to have been stalking her, and it was the rain that caused Tohsaka to seek shelter, and he had done the same in order to ambush his target, so in a round-about way, he had been seeking shelter too.

Tohsaka kept up her glare for a few moments, studying him, while he tried to look as innocent as he could. He had to say that he was pleasantly surprised she hadn't already mindwiped him, or turned him into a thrall, or ambushed him with a spell, which were all acceptable options for a Magus.

True, all options would have utterly failed against him, but it still spoke positively of the Second Owner's character that she hadn't even tried. As such, he could do nothing but smile warmly at her, patiently waiting until she was satisfied in her scrutinising. It probably wouldn't take too long anyway.

What he hadn't been expecting however was for Tohsaka to choke on her breath momentarily, before she turned her back to him. After a few seconds of inaction from both parties, Shirou was about to call out to her, but was cut off before he could get a word out.

"Well, okay then." Tohsaka grumbled, before again turning around. Shirou could almost swear there were very slight red spots on her cheeks, but they were gone before he could confirm their existence. "I'll believe it wasn't your intention to stalk me, for just this once."

"Much appreciated." He smiled, lightly inclining his head towards her.

"Well, then make sure it doesn't happen again." She hissed, narrowing her eyes once more, though now in displeasure rather than suspicion. "I mean, sneaking through the bushes, letting your greedy eyes roam all over me, doesn't exactly give me the best impression of you."

"I wasn't sneaking through the bushes." Shirou replied indignantly, though, looking at his actions objectively, he could understand where she was coming from. After all, he had been hiding from her just now, in the bushes, so yeah.

"Could have fooled me." Tohsaka snipped, smirking slightly at his put-upon expression. "But I suppose I'll forgive you. I did walk into you just now, back on the street, so I can overlook this instance of rudeness from you."

"Oh, but that's nothing to be concerned about." Shirou replied, waving his hand in a dismissive motion.

"It is though." Tohsaka replied, a complicated expression on her face, before she looked down. "I really shouldn't have done it. I told myself not to do it, but I did anyway."

By now, she had gripped her upper arm, and was gripping quite tightly at that, the fingers denting deep into her flesh and undoubtedly cutting off the blood flow in her arm. Shirou could swear that he also heard her mumble something to herself, something about 'needing to know'?

Why was she acting as if she had purposefully planned to walk into him? And why was she so unforgiving to herself about it? It had only been a slight brush, probably because she had miscalculated her path. Nothing to beat herself up over like that.

"It really was no problem." Shirou tried again. "There is no need to feel bad about it, not at all."

Tohsaka looked up again, making eye-contact with him. She took in his concerned expression, her eyes widening slightly, before she promptly relinquished the hold she had on her arm, fortunately. A bit longer, and it might have started to bruise.

"Perhaps not then." She mumbled.

She took a moment to gather her wits again, before she practically snapped to attention and gave him a small bow, or more an inclination of her head.

"Tohsaka Rin." She introduced herself curtly. "Currently in my last year at middle school. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too." Shirou smiled, bowing back slightly. "My name is Emiya Shirou. I am in my last year at middle school as well, and I am planning to attend Homurahara high school next year."

"You are?" Tohsaka asked in surprise, her voice slightly higher pitched than before.

Seeing him nod, she pursed her lips a bit, aiming another inquisitive stare at him. Her eye twitched ever so slightly when he didn't react, but she didn't do anything beside that.

The stare-off continued for a while, until she suddenly started moving again. She abruptly turned around and marched away, leaving him quite nonplussed at her sudden dismissal of him.

Before he could address her on it, she turned her head slightly and called back to him.

"I am short on time as it is, nice to have met you, Emiya-kun." With that said, she turned her head back and seemed to speed up even more, not giving him another look as she practically fled the scene.

"Nice to have met you too, Tohsaka-san." Shirou called back to her, watching as she rapidly disappeared behind the houses of the city, turning a corner and disappearing out of his sight.

Just like that, their impromptu conversation was over.

That... that honestly went a lot better than he thought it would go. Instead of a difficult interrogation about his presence in the park when he had clearly been going the other way, he got an actual, if somewhat short, conversation, which was abruptly cut off by Tohsaka when she realised she still had to go to school.

Normally, he would be a little put off at the abrupt dismissal, but he was currently much too happy at not being suspected as a Magus or a creep. Especially the latter.

Anyway, he had managed to get through a conversation with the Second Owner without revealing anything about his true nature. That was hope-giving. Maybe, just maybe, he could pull off such a thing again in the future, when he would inevitably come into contact with her again. He'd try to avoid her of course, but the dread in his stomach was a good indication that he most likely would fail in that.

She wasn't evil or unpleasant or anything. Nothing that he knew about her indicated something like that. She was just way too perceptive, and he didn't trust his own ability to keep his more unnatural skills and traits hidden from her over a longer period of time.

He had been successful this time, and perhaps he would be again next time, and the time after that, but there was no guarantee he would be able to keep that up forever.

Those were concerns for a later time though. For now, he needed to go to school. He had promised the janitor to take a look at the malfunctioning air conditioner before classes would start after all.

And thus Shirou turned around and was on his way again, blue skies ahead.

* * *

It was a morning like any other, the day after the first meeting between two of the Magi calling Fuyuki-City their home, and just like every other morning, the granddaughter of a certain Yakuza-head was making her way over to her usual breakfast-providers.

It certainly seemed like nothing special or unusual was going on at all, but that was not entirely true, or rather, not true at all, which was perhaps hinted at most by the broad and very smug grin that the woman had on her face.

A smile was of course her default expression, but today, it was even wider than usual.

Because things had been going very well for Taiga lately. She had, for instance, gotten the raise she had been after for a while, and then had managed to get more working hours at Homurahara too, which meant more salary and another raise 'for all of her efforts'. She might not even need her allowance from her gramps anymore if she would be able to keep this up.

Next to that, there was also the blessed absence of those pesky gangs in her city. She was expecting new ones to drip in pretty soon, but for now, there was no one yet to take the vacant spaces.

She had been picking up kendo again, training harder than ever, especially against Shirou, who had progressed wonderfully himself over the months. As a side-benefit, said teen and his not-quite-yet-girlfriend Sakura had been making bigger portions of food for her, citing that she deserved it for all of her hard work.

Speaking of her wards, there was a lot of good news on that front as well. For instance, Shirou and Sakura were both at the top of their classes, with ease, and in just about every subject too. They had found new friends in Ayako and Issei, whom Taiga had been able to get along with very well.

Shirou had been very driven during the last months, seemingly having a purpose in mind that he was pursuing with vigour and determination. Taiga could hazard a guess as to what that purpose was, as she knew of his desire to become a Hero of Justice, and though she couldn't entirely approve of it, it did seem to have a positive influence on him at least, so she'd let it be for now.

Sakura had also improved a lot, which made Taiga very happy indeed. She had always pitied Sakura a bit, as she could clearly see that the plum-haired girl was not happy with her family and her home. No matter how brightly she smiled, something had been always wrong with her, the smile never quite reaching her eyes. Only Shirou had ever managed to truly raise her spirits.

Taiga had played around sometimes with the idea of trying to get Sakura, and Shinji as well, away from their grandfather, as that man clearly didn't have what it took to raise children, but she didn't have any real evidence against him, so she had not been able to go any further than just ideas.

Recently though, Sakura had become cautiously happier, smiling more even without her crush around. Taiga wasn't entirely sure what had brought it about, but she could guess. It probably had something to do with Ayako, to a lesser extent Issei, and maybe even Minori, Ayako's younger brother, who all had grown closer to Sakura over the months.

Too bad though that Minori had an obvious crush on her, and seemed to be determined to 'woo' her and get her to be his girlfriend. A lost cause of course. It was very clear to Taiga and just about anyone else that Sakura only had eyes for one man, and that one man's name was not Mitsuzuri Minori. That didn't stop the boy from trying though.

It was even more unfortunate that Minori's attempts to convince Sakura to become his girlfriend anyway were... less than stellar.

Instead of being kind to her all the time, or giving her presents, or keeping her company, the little brat spent most of his time trying to convince the girl that Shirou was a bad choice as boyfriend. He wasn't obvious about it, but the few times she had been present for their conversations, she could clearly pick up on what he was trying to do.

Taiga doubted it was actively malicious though. It was more childish than anything else, and also utterly useless, as Sakura would never believe even a single bad thing about her Senpai, not even picking up on Minori's dislike of him. Heavens, the girl didn't even realise Minori himself had a crush on her, showing that she could be as dense as Shirou when it came to matters like this.

Taiga had already decided to stay quiet about it for now, but she would also keep a close eye on it. As soon as that brat crossed a line, no matter which one, she would grab Torashinai, show him just how bad an idea it was to bother her wards, and then take it up with his parents.

That little third wheel should not be getting any ideas above his station…

Stepping through the gates of the Emiya-estate, Taiga quickly checked on the time, and smiled when she saw that she was quite a bit earlier than normal. She had a sensational story to tell and she would like to take her time for that.

She entered Shirou's house with the customary amount of noise and racket, to warn the teens she was approaching and that they had to cease all inappropriate behaviour they might be participating in at once, or at least before she laid eyes on them.

"Good morning, Fujimura-sensei."

Looking to the side as she entered the living room, Taiga spotted the plum-haired girl and her not-quite-yet-boyfriend. Both were once more smiling at her, though there was also some faint surprise in their expressions, probably because of her early arrival.

She hadn't told them that she would be early, as she herself hadn't known until the previous evening. She had tried to call both of them to inform them of the change in schedule, but Shirou hadn't picked up the phone, while Zouken had hung up right after she introduced herself.

Despite that, they didn't scold her, nor did they look at her accusingly, or made any negative comment. They just happily welcomed her to the table and fastened their pace in preparing the meal. Taiga tried to lend a hand, but she was immediately chased away from the food, and she was not allowed to even come close to Sakura's chores, so she eventually just sat down and waited.

They were finished in but a few minutes, and after they had sat down around the table, with the customary itadakimasu, the three started eating. Taiga of course immediately pulled as much food as she could towards herself. Talking could wait until later, food was more important now. The chuckles and sighs that came from her wards were completely ignored.

"Fuji-nee, you really shouldn't be eating that fast." Shirou sighed after eating a bit of food himself. "It's unhealthy and you have plenty of time before you have to leave, so please, calm down."

Taiga didn't even look up from her dish, but instead refuted his statement with a shake of her head, and a muttered "Got something to tell you after breakfast".

That was all he got for now, as she redirected all her attention on the food. Vaguely, she heard the teens talking with each other about what she would want to tell them, but they would just have to wait for a bit. Couldn't they see that she was preoccupied at the moment?

Taiga eventually finished her food in record time, but then found the tables turned against her. Her wards were still eating, and they were taking their sweet time too, no matter how much she egged them on. It was infuriating to sat the least.

After several agonising minutes, they finally finished, and when they had cleared the table and cleaned the dishes, Taiga finally could tell her story.

"Now, Fuji-nee, what did you have to share with us that drove you out of bed earlier than normal and absolutely couldn't wait until dinner tonight?" Shirou inquired with a small smile. "Knowing you, it has to be something monumental if you're willing to get out of bed early for it."

"I am more than capable of getting up early without anything driving me to it. Yes, seriously, I am!" She cried with a pout when both teens gave her indulgent smiles at her words. Was it just her or were these two getting more and more of a handful every day?

"As you say, Fujimura-sensei." Sakura smiled disarmingly, her eyes shining with interest. "What did you want to tell us? The last time you were this excited was when the gangs had been broken and rolled up by the police."

Taiga perked up, reinvigorated by Sakura's genuine interest, and pulled out a newspaper from her jacket, holding it up as if it were a newborn lion-king.

"Remember what I told you a few weeks ago?" She asked, feeling her own eyes shine in anticipation, still holding the newspaper up, but not yet unfolding it. "About the vigilante that was taking care of the gangs?"

"Eh, y-yes, we do." Sakura confirmed hesitantly after quickly making eye-contact with Shirou, who nodded too. "You said there were being kept a secret from the public so there would be no copy-cats and stuff like that."

"Yes, but guess what? They are no longer a secret. The vigilante is in the paper!" Taiga exclaimed, folding it open on the right article and throwing it down on the table, angled so that Shirou and Sakura could easily read it. "Their existence was being kept silent for a good long while, but not anymore. It looks like the police is finally giving them some credit for their work."

The teens both said nothing for a while, focused on the article as they were. Sakura lightly humming during her reading, while Shirou blinked in surprise several times, at one point mouthing the word 'Rakurai' to himself.

Sakura then picked up the paper and began reading a part of it out loud, sounding dubious about its contents.

"The police-department is of course very happy with Rakurai's contribution to taking the gangs into police-custody, but cannot condone their actions. Taking the law into one's own hands is still a crime, no matter how effective or beneficial to society. We thus ask Rakurai to turn themselves in, and we guarantee that the sentence will be lenient." She dutifully spoke in a monotone, causing Shirou to frown ever so slightly and Taiga to huff.

"We have kept the existence of this individual a secret for as long as was possible, to prevent any copy-cats from emulating this dangerous behaviour. Recently however, Rakurai has started their work in different cities as well, requiring us to step in and explain what is occurring in our region. We once more stress that vigilantism, as well as providing aid to vigilantes, is illegal by law. It is also very dangerous and ill-advised for civilians to fight criminals. There is a substantial risk of death and/or injury when fighting without extensive training and skill…"

"That will do, Sakura." Shirou interrupted her with a sigh. "This is just a lot of the same nonsense repeated in different wordings. Also, Rakurai?"

"Oh, don't be so grumpy, Shirou." Taiga said, sticking out her tongue at him. "It is awesome to have a vigilante in town, it's almost like a manga or an anime."

 _That_ got his full attention back immediately, as a gobsmacked and incredulous look was aimed at her.

"It is not even remotely the same." He exclaimed in an aggrieved tone. "Not everything that seems cool is based on those fantasies, Fuji-nee, and I don't think this guy is a superhero or magical girl. Frankly, suggesting that is pretty airheaded. Do not mock both the vigilante and the police-department like that, _please_."

Shirou didn't quite yell, but he did raise his voice, clearly far more agitated than Taiga had expected.

"Ah? Shirou, what's wrong? I just wanted to say it is cool that Rakurai is doing this for the city..." Taiga's voice tapered off, before she leaned forwards, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. "But… perhaps I hit a little too close to home? I have no doubt that you would be doing exactly the same as the vigilante if you could. Would that make you a magical girl as well, Shirou-chan?"

"W-what are you saying there out of the blue?" The teen spluttered, the agitation in his expression vanishing immediately to make place for a blush.

"You are always ready to help anyone, Senpai." Sakura pitched in before Taiga could get another word out. "You go quite far in your desire to help people too. It is not that much of a stretch to assume that you would try to become an actual hero of justice as well, with or without permission from the law."

"Indeed." Taiga crowed, happy at having found an impromptu ally. "Don't you always say you want to be one of those later? Or, or, hear me out, Sakura-chan, maybe Shirou thought he was done waiting now already."

"Done waiting now already?" Sakura parroted, looking confused, before her eyes lit up in understanding and a teasing smile appeared on her face, almost identical to the one on Taiga's own face. "Oh! You mean Senpai _is_ Rakurai! Oh, that is amazing!"

"It is!" Taiga gushed. "My little Shirou, going out at night to defeat evil and injustice. Saving damsels with unusual hair colours from terrors in the night. I am so proud!"

Shirou, whose head had fallen deeper and deeper until it rested on the table, let out a deep, aggrieved sigh again, but didn't react beyond that. Not even when Sakura latched on to his arm to teasingly fawn over him.

It was good to know that she could actually get to him every now and then, Taiga decided. He had been much too stoic lately, and not nearly as much fun to tease. She'd have to recruit Sakura more often if it heightened her chances of success this much.

"In all seriousness, if you had been a few years older, I would have deemed it quite likely for you to actually be the vigilante, Shirou." She went on. "I do not mean that as an insult, merely as objective observation."

"Objective observation?" Shirou repeated, slightly lifting his head from its position, sounding as if he expected to regret asking about that.

"Yes, objective observation." Taiga confirmed, crossing her arms and closing her eyes with her nose pointed upwards, glowing with pride at her own intelligence. "You cannot deny that you would immediately do exactly the same as Rakurai if you could. Besides, being compared with the vigilante is no insult at all. They are courageous and brave. Scouring the streets in search of villainy every night, while the three of us are soundly asleep. They prowl the streets, appearing out of the shadows when they are needed most."

"Oh yes." Sakura instantly agreed, still holding Shirou's arm. "A dark and mysterious figure, inspiring fear in their enemies."

"Armed with a mystical weapon from unearthly origin." Taiga picked up again. "They fly over towns and cities, ever searching for his nemeses, who are responsible for the crime they have to fight every day. A tale of magic and secrecy, that started in memory of someone dear to them."

"A real hero." Taiga eventually concluded, making sure to use a love-struck tone of voice, while fanning herself a bit. With a smile, she turned to Shirou again, who no doubt had a reproaching remark ready for her now. Her smile dropped however, when she noticed that he did not look put upon or reproachful at all. Rather, he looked shocked beyond words.

He hadn't moved at all from his position, seemingly frozen in place. His eyes were wide open, he was slackjawed, and even a little pale, but it was the absolutely unnerved look in his eyes that was the most shocking to Taiga herself.

"Shirou!" "Senpai?" Taiga and Sakura simultaneously half-shouted in shock and worry, getting up to walk over to him.

"Shirou. What's wrong?" Taiga asked, grabbing his shoulders to give him a few shakes. "Are you sick? Did you get a stroke? Are you alright, Shirou? Blink twice if you are!"

No blinks were forthcoming, so she just slapped him in the face, hard, and instantly regretted it, as it felt as if she had slapped a brick wall.

"Huh?" The slap did prove enough to rouse his little brother from his trance. "I mean, no. I am fine, I am fine, I assure you. I am not sick, I just thought you were being serious there for a moment, with all the flying and the mystical weapons."

His expression was one of relief, though his face did gain the slightest of red tinges when Taiga deadpanned at him. He had taken her seriously. Really? She would have thought it had been way too out there for the teen, who normally had a healthy dose of scepticism for everything that sounded too unlikely to be true. Why on earth would he suddenly take her seriously?

"It's nonsense of course." Shirou rapidly continued, probably trying to cover up his slip. "It is not like people are actually capable of what you are describing, right Fuji-nee?"

Neither Taiga not Shirou saw the shadowed look appearing in Sakura's eyes for the shortest of moments at those last words.

"No, people are not capable of what I just said." Taiga eventually said, looking suspiciously at him. "You looked really bad there for moment though, are you sure I don't need to call a doctor-"

"N-no." He hastily denied. "I was only shocked at what you said about the vigilante, nothing more. I am not sick."

Taiga still wasn't wholly convinced, and she could tell Sakura wasn't either, but they both let the matter drop for now. Shirou was usually very mellow, but when he had decided upon something, he was more stubborn than Taiga herself.

"In all seriousness though. Aren't you at least a little impressed?" She asked instead, picking up the newspaper again, waving it in front of her Wards' faces. "It's an actual vigilante! Isn't that awesome? Come on, you know I am right. Am I right, Shirou?"

"Yes." Shirou huffed, holding up his hands as if to stave her off. "You are right, they are awesome, whoever they are."

Taiga nodded in satisfaction, happy with the confirmation.

"Hold on. What time is it?" Shirou suddenly asked, sitting up straighter as he remembered it was still a school-or work-day for the three of them. "Have we not been talking way too long already?"

Taiga herself almost shot to her feet again at the realisation that they had been talking for quite a while now, but calmed down again after Sakura replied that they still had at least ten minutes before they had to leave, and that was if they took it easy on the way to their respective destinations.

"That's new." Shirou remarked, looking pleasantly surprised. "Maybe you should try getting up early more often, Fuji-nee, it certainly makes things calmer in the morning. I'll start with breakfast earlier as well, before Sakura arrives, and then we-"

"NO!" Taiga and Sakura immediately yelled, both in completely disagreement with the idea, cutting him off in the middle of his sentence. He blinked in surprise at the sudden shout, looking from Taiga to Sakura and back.

"… I suppose not then." He finished lamely, giving up on the idea, to Taiga's great relief. She wouldn't have survived getting up so early all the time. Now, quickly, a different subject.

"So, I heard the two of you will finally begin with those swimming lessons that were announced all those weeks ago?" Taiga inquired innocently, trying to seem completely inconspicuous and not at all motivated by her sense of self-preservation. "It would be about time by now, that letter arrived so long ago."

"It wasn't our turn yet, Fuji-nee. The pools they use simply don't have the capacity to hold all students at once." Shirou explained, accepting the change seamlessly, to Taiga's great relief, and also that of Sakura. "But you are correct. The day after tomorrow, in the afternoon, we will be expected at Fuyuki-City's official swimming pool, to receive our first lesson."

"We actually got quite lucky." Sakura pitched in, smiling brightly again. "We are in the same group as Issei-san, Ayako, and Minori-san. Isn't that amazing?"

"It is." Taiga gushed in response, grabbing Sakura's hands in her own and bringing her face close to that of the younger girl, though also noticing the slight frown that came to Shirou's face at the mention of Ayako's younger brother.

"It is quite the coincidence to have us all in the same group." He said eventually. "But I can't say I am unhappy about it. To the contrary actually."

"Excellent." Taiga replied, letting go of Sakura's hands again, though she totally called bullshit about Shirou being happy to be in the same group as Minori. "Then you will have each other if there are any problems. Having friends with you is important."

Suddenly, Taiga realised something, something amazing, something she couldn't believe she hadn't realised before, and her smile gained a mischievous edge.

"I take it you already have your bathing suits ready?" She asked innocently, smiling as the teens nodded to her question.

"Nothing too indecent I hope." She began leadingly. "Unless you were planning on showing off those muscles of yours, Shirou. I think a lot of girls would appreciate that, Sakura for instance has been looking forward to seeing you half-naked for weeks now. She'll definitely _look_ , but I think she might even try to _touch_ , so you better be ready to hold her off."

Shirou blushed slightly, self-consciously crossing his arms in front of his chest, but it was Sakura's reaction that Taiga had been hoping for.

"Fujimura-sensei!" She cried out, her face exploding in a fierce blush while she shook her hands rapidly in front of her. "D-don't s-s-say s-such th-things out in the o-open! I-it is not t-true! IT'S NOT!"

That was a blatant lie. Sakura had been looking forward to seeing her Senpai in swimming wear ever since the letter had arrived, she had just been trying very hard not to think about it. In her embarrassment though, she completely missed the fact that the worms remained completely silent, not even twitching in response to her mild arousal, too cowed by the superior presence nearby.

"What? What did I say?" Taiga asked, pretending to be confused at the girl's strong reaction. "I was merely trying to make sure you would remain decent during the swimming lessons. I can't have it that my wards will behave inappropriately during these kind of official events. It could cost me my new promotion."

Sakura latched on to the new subject like a drowning victim.

"Your new promotion? Congratulations." She breathed in relief, happy to leave the previous subject behind. It was not to be though, as Shirou immediately went back.

"I assure you that we will remain decent at all times." He said reassuringly. "You don't have to worry about us at all."

"Hm, I suppose." Taiga acquiesced, though she send a suggestive look at Sakura, who promptly buried her face in her hands. "But with that out of the way, are you looking forward to it, Sakura-chan? A bit of swimming around while learning how to survive in open water. Combining fun and work in one splashy package. What about you, Shirou?"

"Dad already taught me how to swim." Shirou replied curtly. "But I suppose it can't hurt to go over it again. Especially if it is true that more and more people are drowning these days. I find it a little strange though. Fuyuki-City is right next to the sea, why would people not known how to swim?"

"I don't know how to swim." Sakura confessed in an apologetic tone, the new subject allowing her to cool off a bit. "Grandfather never considered it important, so I'm happy with the lessons. Nii-san has been having those lessons for the past weeks by the way, and he says they are quite informative and effective."

"Shinji praised them that much?" Taiga asked sceptically. The elder Matou-sibling was not known for his enthusiasm and lauding of other's efforts, so she couldn't help but be doubtful of Sakura's words.

"Ehehe, no." Sakura laughed sheepishly, bowing her head and letting her hair fall in front of her face. "But he didn't complain about them, and he said that 'they were not as bad as he had expected' and that 'the instructors weren't completely worthless', and by now, I can translate sentences like that."

Shirou sighed deeply, shaking his head at the behaviour of his friend, causing Sakura to sheepishly laugh once more.

"Any idea what you will be doing during those lessons?" Taiga continued her line of questioning.

"No, not really, but I can ask Nii-san." Sakura proposed. "I'm sure he'll be willing to tell us, he has never refused me a request like that."

"You do that then, and please share the information with the rest of us. Oh, and one more thing." Taiga leaned forward on her forearms, fingers crossed together. "If any of those trainers or the other children in your group try anything funny with either of you, come tell me at once and I'll bust some heads."

She was completely serious about that. No one messed with her wards and got away with it, especially those who did stuff like that. She, as their legal guardian, had a responsibility to break anyone who tried such heinous stuff with them in two or more pieces.

Shirou scowled lightly in reponse, but he nodded without hesitation. Sakura pressed her hands to her mouth in shock, before she too nodded.

"Excellent. I will not have an idiotic boy or girl get it into their minds that you are free game, and then does heinous things to you, while you-"

"Such matters do not belong at the breakfast-table." Shirou said sternly, though with a blush on his face. "We do not speak of it, no exceptions. Not even for wild tigers-"

"Shirou-channnn!" Taiga immediately interrupted him in turn, her good mood gone in an instant. "Don't call me a tiger, I am not a tiger, I have never been a tiger, and I will never be a tiger. Never, never, never."

To extra emphasise her point, she leaned forward over the table, crouching low and baring her teeth at the boy. Her attempt at intimidation fell flat though when instead of cowering, her Wards burst out in laughter at the sight.

Alas, the happy atmosphere she had inadvertently created was ended when Sakura announced it was time for them to go. They all had their responsibilities after all, and it wasn't good to be late. The three of them left the estate together and also walked together for the first part, allowing them to speak a bit more as they walked.

Sakura was the first one to take a different path, departing with a goodbye and a promise to greet Ayako for them. Barely half-a-mile later, Taiga and Shirou had to part ways as well. Before she left though, there was one last thing Taiga still had to say to him.

As such, she stopped him before he could walk away, holding out an arm to block his path. She then pulled him back slightly and turned him towards her so she could properly face him.

"… Fuji-nee?" Her little brother asked after a second's worth of surprise. "What's wrong?"

"Shirou." She began, carefully weighing her words, knowing that she was stepping into a potential minefield here. "Do you know anything more about this vigilante than you let on?"

His eyes widened in shock at her question, but to Taiga's immense relief, there was no guilt or sense of being caught in his gaze. Not that that necessarily proved his innocence, but still.

"Fuji-nee…" Shirou repeated, now sounding hesitant about what he could even say in response.

"You know, I wasn't lying when I said that I believe you might start to emulate Rakurai's behaviour. Heavens, I seriously entertained the thought that you might be Rakurai yourself for some time." Taiga said, shaking him slightly by his shoulders.

She watched as Shirou made to protest, to deny her words, but ultimately couldn't bring himself to, instead looking down to the ground in silent acknowledgement that he most likely would have started copying Rakurai if the chance presented itself.

"I… no, _we_ all know you want to become a Hero of Justice, Shirou, but... _this_ is not the way. Catching criminals in the middle of the night is work for crazy superheroes and merciless assassins. Not for teenage boys who only do kendo, no matter how much those teens might want to help. You just can't do everything, you must realise that."

"I… I cannot deny that I would do such a thing, under these circumstances." Shirou admitted, looking oddly not-guilty at the admission.

"Shirou, please promise me that you won't try to copy Rakurai." Taiga implored softly, before raising her voice, drawing herself up to her full height. "Promise me right now, or I swear I will force you to practice kendo, and running, and kickboxing, and whatever, with me every day so you will be to broken to do anything at all."

"Wha….? What's with the threats all of a sudden?" Her little brother grumbled good-naturedly, before nodding in agreement. "Understood, Fuji-nee. I won't try to copy the vigilante, or any other vigilante that might crop up in response to Rakurai. I promise."

It made Taiga's mood bounce right back into 'excellent'.

"Fantastic." She gushed, smacking him on the back in her enthusiasm, instantly regretting that action as her hand felt as if she had hit a brick wall, again.

Turns out Ayako-chan hadn't been exaggerating about his sturdiness.

"That's all I had to say for now. Thanks for listening, Shirou-chan. Bye Bye."

Saying her goodbyes, Taiga then ran off, trying to make up for the time she lost by having that last talk with Shirou.

* * *

It was with a quiet hum that Shirou put his shirt back on, not feeling at all hurried for a change.

He was currently standing in a single-person changing room belonging to the official swimming-pool of Fuyuki-City, though he was about to leave it. It was time for the first lesson in swimming he had gotten in years. He didn't even know how proficient he still was at the moment. It had been too long since he had entered a large body of water that was too deep for him to stand on the floor, to accurately gauge just how much of his skill he retained now.

So he was in fact slightly looking forward to the upcoming training. If nothing else, it would allow him to measure himself against others of his age and against the Shirou of several years back.

He had some idea of what to expect. After Sakura had told him at breakfast two days ago that Shinji had been part of the first group that had partaken in the course, he had taken it upon himself to get every detail he could out of his friend.

One would have expected Shinji to be more forthcoming with that out of his own initiative, but that wasn't so. It apparently wasn't interesting enough to warrant talking about it, or at least, that appeared to be Shinji's opinion of the matter. It had thus been admittedly tedious to get Shinji to stay in one place for long enough to tell Shirou everything of note, but all in all, the older Matou-sibling had been surprisingly forthcoming with the information once asked about it, not even demanding anything back for it.

Shinji's tale mostly described somewhat overworked employees, who nevertheless worked tirelessly to train everyone up to standard, while trying to keep things interesting enough to keep the attention of a large group of teenagers. It wasn't perfect, but it was passable at the very least.

Shinji had also been able to tell him they would start with general training in the basic swimming skills, before moving on to learning how to properly save a drowning person, as well as some theoretical lessons on how to deal with strong currents. Additionally, the students present would be divided into smaller groups of five or six, which the students either had to form themselves, or otherwise would be sorted into by the instructors.

As soon as he had told Sakura and Ayako about that last titbit, they had immediately formed their incomplete group of three on the spot. He supposed it was only logical, they were friends after all, and he, as somewhat experienced swimmer, could help the girls if they had any trouble. They had still needed at least two more people though, so they had asked Issei and Minori to join their group, to which both boys had agreed.

Shirou was of course happy that Issei was included, but he had to admit he would rather have had that Minori had not been asked. He did not know why, but he would, truthfully, prefer it if Minori stayed well away from their group. He did not want the boy anywhere near him—No, wait, that wasn't correct. He didn't care if he had to team up with the younger boy himself. He just didn't want Minori anywhere near Sakura.

It was a strange feeling, that need to keep Minori away from Sakura. Shirou had so far ignored it, but if it kept up, he might have to start taking measures. He did wonder if Minori perhaps felt the same, considering the foul looks the boy would occasionally give him.

On the positive side of things, they now had their full five man-group complete, and still had a spot left over in case someone else still needed a group. A fine arrangement if you asked him.

It was with a smile on his face that he entered the pool. He wore his swimming trunks, but also a shirt to cover his upper body. He didn't know how long he would be waiting for the others, and he did want to preserve some modesty and dignity. Something that would be harder if he stood around half-naked.

He was a bit prudish, so what?

He found he was one of the first people to arrive, though not _the_ first. That honour belonged to his friends. Though they were standing with their backs towards him, looking over the pool itself, there was no way he could have mistaken the purple hair of Sakura and the brown hair of Ayako. He hadn't been friends with them for years and months respectively without memorizing at least a few bodily characteristics of theirs.

...That was meant in the most non-perverted way possible. He didn't mean any of _those_ characteristics of course, rather he meant the general shape of their backs, their height, and their torso-to-leg ratio, and other very innocent things like that. He didn't stare at them like that! Well, maybe a tiny bit, sometimes, but never for too long!

Shirou coughed in his hand, dispelling the distracting thoughts from his mind. The bodies of his female friends were no business to be concerned about today. Today was about swimming and getting Sakura through her first lesson ever. She hadn't been taught when she had been younger, and skills like swimming were harder to learn the older one was.

Shirou nodded to himself, steeling his mind and banishing all inappropriate thoughts.

Unfortunately for him though, when the girls turned around to face him, he learned, right then and there, that the outward appearance of his female friends _was_ in fact something to be concerned about today.

They were clad in one-piece swimsuits, purple for Sakura and black for Ayako, that properly covered almost their entire torso, save for some visible skin on their flanks. They were certainly very much decent in it, nothing too daring, all very appropriate.

Nevertheless, their incredibly attractiveness, and, dare he say it, _sexiness_ hit him around the head like a sledgehammer. For a few seconds, he could only take in their forms. Despite how much he should have anticipated this, swimming meant wearing swimsuits after all, he had not prepared for this in the slightest.

He was well-aware he was acting incredible inappropriately, but for those few seconds, he couldn't stop himself. Their visibly toned stomachs, their fantastically shaped legs, their skin shining in the light of the room. Shirou could actually feel the blood in his body rushing to his face and... a certain other place.

With titanic effort, Shirou managed to get himself under control just in time to prevent the blood from reaching its destination and causing a potentially embarrassing incident. He breathed in deep, as he shook his head a few times, trying to recover from that unexpected blow.

"Senpai! Over here!" "Oi, Shirou, right this way." Two voices then called out, just as Shirou managed to get his head back in the game. A quick glance revealed both girls to be smiling at him, seemingly not having noticed his little slip.

"I know, I'm coming, I'm coming." He called back, waving at the girls to signal he had seen them. He quickly made his way over, actually managing to keep his mind away from the impure places it had descended to seconds ago.

"Good morning, you two." Shirou smiled as he came to stand in front of them. Sakura and Ayako promptly wished him a good morning back, Sakura with her serene, yet currently slightly nervous-looking smile and Ayako with her customary big grin.

"It's good you are here, Shirou." Ayako said, reaching out to lightly pat him on the back. "Sakura is being very difficult at the moment, and I absolutely need your help with this."

Sakura's following squawk of surprise and cute outrage only managed to widen the grin, but Shirou could still perceive traces of actual relief in Ayako's countenance.

"Oh?" He questioned, looking with surprise at the one girl that he had never seen causing any kind of trouble for anyone. "And what is it exactly that you are doing to poor Ayako, Sakura?"

"Nothing." She instantly declared, though it didn't come out as forcefully as she might have wanted, and instead made her sound more like an angry little kitten. "Mitsuzuri-san is just making things up."

"Making things up? Me? This _Mit-su-zu-ri-san_?" Ayako asked in shock, dramatically taking half a step back. "I never ever, or maybe sometimes, make stuff up. Why, you are the one being so difficult here, calling me by my family name and everything. She won't tell me what's wrong with her."

That last line was spoken directly to Shirou, while the brunette gestured towards her purple-haired friend. Said friend was still spluttering in protest, when Ayako reached out and brought her into a one-armed hug, or rather, head lock, gently ruffling her hair with the other hand.

"But I can already guess what's wrong." Ayako sighed. "You don't want to be a burden on us, despite us having told you a thousand times already that we are only glad to help you with every problem you have.."

Ah, now Shirou was catching on as well. Sakura was the only one their small clique, Issei and Minori included, that had never had any formal swimming lessons before, as she had told them several days ago. The others had immediately offered their help of course, but Sakura had trouble accepting the offer, stating that she didn't want to be a burden to them.

Her belief that she would be a burden because of something so small was ridiculous, but Shirou knew precisely who to blame for her current mindset. _Zouken_.

That head of the Matou family had turned Shinji into an arrogant, yet fearful and uncertain teen that was heading towards self-destruction, while Sakura had become a timid girl that was unable to request anything from others out of fear they would think of her as greedy and unworthy of love.

Not for the first time, Shirou wished that he could take both away from Zouken, but he knew he had no true reason for that, nor any legal grounds. Additionally, Zouken would never accept it if he, another Magus, were to try and take his grandchildren away from him, no matter how pure his intentions might be.

The only way to get Shinji and Sakura away from him was to kill him, and Shirou wasn't quite sure the man deserved such a fate. To the best of his knowledge, Zouken was unpleasant, yes, but ultimately nothing more than that. Certainly not someone who should be killed without hesitation.

Later, several months later, after discovering the truth, Shirou would curse himself for that stupid, ignorant thought.

Shirou smiled kindly at Sakura, who was now struggling slightly against Ayako's embrace, though she was not actually trying very hard to escape, for some reason.

"Don't worry about it, Sakura." He reassured her, taking a step forward to place his own hand over Ayako's on top of Sakura's head. "We promised you we would help you, and we will. You are our friend, and I have no doubt that the two of us should be able to manage everything quite well, shouldn't we?"

Sakura looked demurely up at him with her ever-earnest and sweet gaze, completely stopping her struggle and instead letting herself hang in Ayako's arms. Her eyes had slightly lit up after hearing his words, and Shirou found he had trouble looking away from them.

"S-so, y-you meant it?" She ventured hopefully, smiling when he nodded. "T-Then, I would like t-to accept, i-if t-the offer's s-still open."

"Sure thing." Ayako grinned, though with a faint blush of her face for some reason. Maybe she was very hot?. "Of course Shirou and I will help you, Sakura. We are always ready to help out our friend. Now, let go off all those worries and just focus on the here and now, with the three of us, standing close together, half-naked..."

Ayako's smile disappeared, and she glanced down at where she had her hand on Sakura's head and Shirou's hand was placed on top of her hand in turn. That was when she seemed to realise just what that picture might indicate to outside observers, and then she turned very red, immediately releasing Sakura from her hold.

"Ayako?" Sakura squeaked as she just managed to avoid falling on her face. "What's wrong?"

For a moment Shirou thought Ayako was too dazed to respond, but just as he was about to take a step towards her to knock her out of it, she seemed to regain her wits.

"Oh! Oops, sorry about that, Sakura." The brunette laughed nervously, wringing her hands, eyes shifting between her two friends as if they were predators and she the prey. "N-no, n-nothing is wrong, r-really. I was just shocked at… well, you know, _that_ thing."

Shirou didn't know, at all, what 'that thing' could be, but it seemed that Sakura did, if the look of realisation in her eyes was anything to go by. Smiling, she walked forward, before taking Ayako's hand in her own.

"I know, and I understand." She said reassuringly. "But don't worry too much about it. My offer still stands, and it is entirely up to you whether you accept it or not. I hope you will, and that we'll remain close when you do, but it is your decision, truly."

Ayako took a deep breath in response, shaking her head a few times, before giving them a smile again. Shirou relaxed at the sight of it. Though it was not as bright as before, it would seem Sakura's words had helped with whatever problem the brunette had been having. He still didn't know what was going on exactly, but it didn't matter all that much, as long as everyone was happy.

The sound of footsteps suddenly caught his attention, and he turned around to face the newcomer. The girls, lacking the enhanced hearing he had been blessed with, let out surprised sounds at his action, before imitating him.

The new arrival turned out to be no one else than Issei, who was clad similarly to Shirou, with swimming trunks and a shirt on. Though they would deny it whenever asked, it was completely true and proven that both boys admittedly were slightly prudish.

"Ryuudou-san!" Ayako called out, sounding happy it was someone she knew. "Good to see you here! How are you today? Well? That is good to hear. Looking forward to the lessons? Or not at all perhaps? How's the family?"

Blinking at the sudden barrage of questions, Issei slightly adjusted his glasses, which he was allowed to keep on during the lesson, as he seemed to consider Ayako's questions.

"Good to see you as well, Mitsuzuri-san." He eventually replied dryly, clearly having chosen to pretend nothing was out of the ordinary. "I am indeed well, just like the rest of my family and the others at the temple, and I hope you are as well. Yes, I am in fact looking forward to the lessons, it had been a while since the last one, honestly."

"Yeah, it's the same for me." Shirou added. "It's been entirely too long since I've done any training in swimming, and I suspect that's the case for most people that'll come here today. Then again, that is exactly why we are here."

"True, we are here to refresh our swimming-ability." Issei acknowledged with a short nod, before smiling at Sakura. "Though for some of us, this will be the first time they receive any lessons. Naturally, we will assist them. Are you ready for this, Matou-san?"

"I am, Ryuudou-san." Sakura nodded, looking demure again, but also much more determined than earlier. "I'll try to keep up with the rest of you, even if I might need some help."

"You will receive all the help you need, I assure you." Issei answered without a second of hesitation. "Us older and more experienced students have a duty to assist the younger and less experienced ones, but even if that were not so, I would have had no objection against teaching you, and neither would the others, I am sure."

"Right you are, Ryuudou-san." Ayako grinned. "We were just talking about it in fact. We will all help Sakura wherever and whenever she needs it."

Shirou nodded in agreement, before turning around yet again as he once more heard footsteps approaching their location. This time, it was a group of people. Shirou sent a quick glance at Issei, wondering if he'd seen anyone while he had been changing, but the boy, understanding the look Shirou threw him, shook his head in the negative.

"Oh!" Sakura suddenly proclaimed, as she smiled brightly at the newcomers. "Hello there, Minori-san."

Shirou's smile disappeared, instantly replaced with a frown as the arriving group was now identified as Mitsuzuri Minori and his friends.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan." Minori immediately called back, smiling brightly as well, though his expression shifted into a glare for a fraction of a second as his gaze passed over Shirou. "Are you ready for today? I know I am, so let's have some fun, shall we?"

"I am ready, Minori-san." Sakura smiled, bashfully staring down at the ground. "I suppose we should have fun too. I-if I get the s-swimming itself right of course, I-I'll work very hard."

"Don't worry about that, Sakura-chan, I am here to help you with whatever you need." The younger boy proclaimed, puffing out his chest proudly. "Just stick close to me, and I'll guide you through."

Sakura fidgeted slightly at those words, the bashful smile still on her face, missing the thumbs-up and winks that Minori's friends sent him. Shirou on the other hand did not miss those signs, and though he wasn't sure why, he found he forcefully had to relax his hands afterwards to prevent them from clenching into fists. Something about seeing that just rankled him badly.

He didn't presume he could tell Sakura who to speak with though, so he just averted his eyes and instead began a conversation with Issei about the recent happenings in Japan, which they were soon joined in by Ayako.

It wasn't long after that that the first instructor arrived at the pool, and with him many other students that had apparently decided to wait until an adult arrived before actually entering the building. It wasn't even five minutes later that the three other instructors had arrived as well, along with what Shirou presumed to be all students that were meant to be present.

After a quick round of name-calling, one of the instructors stepped forward.

"Welcome, everyone." He began, sounding quite chipper. "My name is Kishimoto Teruo, and together with my co-workers, I will be your swimming instructors for the coming weeks. Let's all get along."

A general mummer of agreement came from the crowd, which was apparently good enough for Kishimoto.

"Now, we realise that many of you are already experienced at swimming, yet I am sure that there are enough of you who cannot swim yet. The normal response to that would of course be to create two groups, dividing you into experienced swimmers and less-experienced swimmers."

There was a barely noticeable gasp from Sakura at that. She nervously met his gaze, and Shirou made sure to smile reassuringly at her. Smiling back, she inched a little closer to him, which made him feel… strangely happy for some reason.

"Yes, that's what we normally would do." Kishimoto went on. "However, we also learned from previous experiences that some of the more learned ones of you might want to stick with your inexperienced friends. We also learned that you are teenagers, and that splitting you all up so brusquely is detrimental for motivation and the general mood of the room."

Kishimoto grabbed a form lying on the table next to him, holding it up in the air.

"Which is why you've had the instructions to assemble groups of five or six people yourselves, ideally a mix of experienced swimmers and newcomers, though that is not a necessity. After I finish talking, please find your friends to stand with, and I'll come by to write your names on this form. What's more..."

Kishimoto clearly had experience speaking before crowds. The man didn't talk for long, but he still managed to cover an impressive number of subjects in that time, including but not limited to the schedule of this particular lesson, the general schedule and build-up of the coming lessons, the requirements for the final exam in a few months, and any possibilities for extra help for those who felt they weren't prepared enough by these lessons only.

"But all of that is for later. For now, find your old friends, or potential new friends, and please stand together so that you form a clear group." Kishimoto finished, giving the mass of teenagers a last bow before going over to stand with his colleagues.

In an instant, the previously calm air of the assembled students became hectic and wild, as everyone present either struggled to reach their friends, or went around trying to find sympathetic-looking people. In a few seconds, the once so orderly mass had dissolved into a chaotic mess. Fortunately, Shirou had no trouble navigating through the masses, making sure to keep Ayako and Sakura close by, which they didn't seem to mind at all. Issei was quickly found, having been smart enough to move towards the edges of the crowd. It was also very fortunate that he'd had the presence of mind to drag Minori along with him before the boy could have charged off.

The five of them took some distance from the crowd, staying close together to signal they were a group, as per the instructions. It didn't take long for Shirou to spot the instructors going around, noting down the groups that had been formed. From what he could see, everyone present at the pool was now included in one group or another, as no one seemed to be looking around anymore.

There had still been that extra spot in their own group, but it looked like it would remain empty. Ayako and Issei had come to much the same conclusion, also watching the crowd for any stragglers, before giving up when they found no one. Sweeping his gaze around one more time, just to be sure, Shirou reaffirmed that there was no one left…

No! Wait. There was one person still alone among the formed groups, who happened to be walking straight at his group at that very moment, their stride purposeful and self-assured, leaving no doubt that they were coming over with the explicit purpose of joining them.

That normally wouldn't have been a problem at all, since they all had agreed that they had a spot open for anyone who didn't have any friends or acquaintances here. It shouldn't have been a problem, if it hadn't been for the simple fact of _who_ this person was.

Shirou was vaguely aware he should be doing something, but he was unable to tear his eyes away from the impending disaster, and no, the unreal beauty of this person had nothing to do with that sudden inability to avert his eyes. His inactivity lasted right up until the newcomer had reached them, and spoke.

"Excuse me? I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm afraid I don't know anyone around here well enough to form a group with them. If I could perhaps join your group, I would be very grateful."

The question was asked in a perfect tone, just polite and demure enough to come over as proper and pleading, while at the same confident and self-assured enough to notify everyone around that refusal was not an option. Such a perfect tone and choice of words was only to be expected from this person. She knew exactly how to speak to people to get them to think the way she wanted after all. It came with her profession.

Shirou really should have just rejected her, but since he had no actual good-sounding reasons, there was no way he could do that.

Not to mention that she genuinely seemed to consider his group her best choice. She didn't seem to be planning something, as he had half-expected her to, and she indeed had been alone from the very beginning of the lesson. He could also easily spot several other people furiously hoping he would refuse, probably meaning to snatch her up themselves. He had to say he really didn't like the way some of them looked at her, and she didn't seem to like it any more than he.

The others also didn't seem to consider it any problem for her to join them, with only Sakura now pointedly looking away for some reason.

"Ah, sure, Tohsaka-san." Shirou thus answered the Second Owner of the city. "We still have a spot available. Please, do join us."

Tohsaka smiled brightly at him, and Shirou thought he could even see some sincerity in it. She quickly went to stand beside them, to the great disappointment of many who'd been eagerly watching her.

"Good morning, Tohsaka-san, was it?" Issei spoke, stepping forward and giving a polite bow. "I am Ryoudou Issei, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Mitsuzuri Ayako, also a pleasure." The exuberant girl smiled at the newcomer, her eyes gliding over Tohsaka's body, before she glanced sideways at Sakura, blushed slightly for some reason, and then looked Tohsaka right in the eyes again.

"Mitsuzuri Minori, I'm her little brother, I too am pleased to meet you." Minori picked up from where Ayako had left off, also bowing to the girl in front of him.

"… Matou Sakura." The plum-haired girl said, and left it at that, still pointedly not looking at the other girl, who did not seem bothered or surprised at all by it.

"We have met already." Shirou finished the round of introductions. "Though I will say it is good to meet you again, Tohsaka-san."

"Likewise, Emiya-san." Tohsaka replied curtly, before turning towards the other four and giving a bow, her eyes carefully studying each of them, yet strangely enough quickly passing over Sakura. "I thank you for your kind welcome, I am Tohsaka Rin, let's get along."

...Tohsaka and Sakura definitely had some kind of history, that was obvious by now. Shirou knew it was none of his business of course, but he resolved to keep an eye on it anyway. He wouldn't interfere, but if his friend had some kind of problem going on, he should at least be ready to help her in any way needed.

He resolutely ignored the little voice that told him he would help her whether she wanted him to or not, and that he should stop being hypocritical.

"Alright then!" Kishimoto suddenly spoke up again, apparently done with his forms. "Now that you all are gathered in groups, you will receive your instructions. We will start easy, with five minutes of breaststroke. Those of you who do not know what that is or how to do it, either ask your teammates, or come to us instructors for help."

Shirou and the other turned to Sakura, who smiled sheepishly and shook her head, signalling she had no idea what to do. Strangely enough, Tohsaka-san seemed to be at a loss as well.

"Don't worry, you two." Issei said, looking around for a bit. "Just give Shirou and me a moment to pull off our shirts and we can start."

Ayako let out a cough, which sounded a lot like 'prudes', but since she would be correct in that notion, neither Issei nor Shirou bothered to say anything of it.

Issei calmly removed his shirt, pointedly ignoring Ayako's teasing whistle, though he smiled at the cry that followed when Sakura poked her friend in the ribs.

"Ouch, did it have to be that hard, Sakura?" The exuberant girl whined as she rubbed her abused ribs. "And why in my ribs? That's a really low blow."

"Yes." Sakura replied mercilessly. "If you are acting that stupid, then I have no problem touching you hard in those places."

"Touching me hard in… those… places?" Ayako seemed to choke on air, her face going red. "Kya! Sakura, please stop that. Ph-ph-phrasing, think about phrasing, please, I beg of you!"

Shrugging mentally at the scene, though he did spare a thought to wonder who Tohsaka was turning red too, Shirou went to emulate Issei, also pulling off his shirt and putting it to the side, now clad only his swimming trunks as he walked back to join the others, lightly stretching a bit to loosen his muscles.

It really was hot in here. He had only been wearing a shirt and swimming trunks, nothing else, yet he was already so sweaty he almost seemed shiny in the light of the lamps. He would have to shower before getting into the pool, because this was just unhygienic.

He made his way back to the others, and once more joined their semi-circle. That's when he noticed it had gotten very quiet around him, none of his friends saying anything. They all seemed paralysed, none of them moving an inch anymore.

Looking around in mild alarm, Shirou tried making eye-contact with Sakura, hoping to ask her what was going on, only to find her staring forward, her eyes glazed as her mouth was dropped half-open.

Hoping for assistance, he turned to Ayako next, only to find her in much the same state, her face entirely red as she stared forward, her gaze locked in his direction. Even Tohsaka was affected, Shirou saw when he looked at her. She too was gaping in stupefied awe. Issei and Minori were unabashedly staring as well, and several of the other teenagers around seemed to have fallen prey to this new phenomenon too.

Shirou tried following their gazes to whatever they were staring at, but the only thing that he could find was… himself?

"Excuse me, what has gotten into all of you?" He asked loudly, feeling deep confusion, and also more and more embarrassment rising in him as everyone just kept staring at him. To his relief, that question seemed to break most of them out of their trance, causing them to look away immediately. Unfortunately for him though, the females kept sneaking glances whenever he wasn't looking, to the great consternation of the males.

Poor Shirou, who didn't even know why they had been staring at him before, was at a complete loss now as to why most of them were now glaring at him with spiteful sneers and dismissive frowns, mumbling to each other in hushed tones. They probably did not mean for him to overhear their words, but he did, being an enhanced being and all, and he could only be glad that he was not easily insulted, because there were some instances of swearing and profanity in between the awed whispering that altogether went way too far.

One of the oldest teens present even looked at Shirou with a disgusted look before spitting on the ground, though that immediately got him a whack over the head from Katsuragi, one of the other instructors. Feeling appreciative of the older man for a moment, Shirou instantly lost that feeling a mere second later, when the man gave him a grin and a thumbs-up, mouthing 'nice gains, bro' to him.

What was that even supposed to mean?

To make matters worse, neither Ayako nor Sakura had stopped their staring yet, and Tohsaka was obviously having difficulty pulling her gaze away too. Shirou was just about to snap them out of it when it was done for him, as Kishimoto had apparently had enough of it all.

The instructor clapped his hands, incredibly loudly, while also releasing a roared order for everyone to shut their mouths and to pay attention. He got everyone's attention the next instant, even from the three girls standing with Shirou.

"Hm." Kishimoto then continued, as if nothing had happened. "Good, now that everyone's got their wits back together, I believe you already have your instructions. Get moving!"

So they did. Immediately. Collectively trying to forget the whole episode from just now.

* * *

Matou Sakura was equal parts elated, embarrassed, and horrified.

Elated not only because she was now engaged in an activity with her friends, something that had always seemed a distant dream, but also because she turned out to be actually good at swimming, despite never having done so before. Her fears of being horrible at it were proven completely untrue, and the smiles from Senpai and Ayako only heightened her elation at that.

Embarrassed and horrified, because she had been staring like a dirty old man for far too long when her Senpai had pulled off his shirt. It had been so far beyond acceptable that she couldn't even see the range of acceptable beneath her anymore, and that Ayako had been in a similar state could only do so much to stave off her embarrassment.

Sakura was not entirely sure of what to think of her sis-of Tohsaka-san being in much the same state as the two of them, but after the initial knee-jerk reaction of glaring at the other girl, she had just put that it of her mind, as she did with everything relating to her old life.

She couldn't however completely suppress a smile of… something similar to vindictiveness, when she noticed just how clumsy Tohsaka was in her attempts at swimming, constantly having to rely on Ayako to even just remain above the surface. It had gotten so far that _Ryuudou-san_ had resolved to ask for help if this kept up, even though Tohsaka-san had asked them not to.

Eventually though, through sheer stubbornness, Tohsaka-san actually managed to get herself to an acceptable level of skill at the end of the hour-long lesson. Sakura had to admit she was tenacious at least, though she could have done without Senpai praising the girl for managing to keep her head above water. Sakura herself had done much better than that!

Then again, Senpai had already praised her, so yeah, she shouldn't say anything, though she couldn't entirely stop her eyes from narrowing when Tohsaka quickly looked away after Senpai told her he admired her will and drive. It was a reaction she recognised after all, from herself, whenever her Senpai would just casually say something incredibly kind or uplifting, with that air around him that he was merely speaking the truth.

Sakura had gritted her teeth at the sight, the sight of that little bi- that girl acting like that around _her_ Senpai. Her anger had lasted for several seconds, until she remembered that she was being nonsensical. She didn't have the right to be jealous. As much as she pretended, she wasn't worthy of Senpai at all, being a filthy existence n **o** t **ev** en f **it** to **cra** wl a **rou** nd at **the feet of those better than her…**

"Are you okay, Sakura-chan?"

Minori's worried voice was just what she needed to dispel those thoughts and to push her self-hatred back into the abyss where it belonged. Putting on her most innocent expression, she quickly answered her friend. "Eh? Oh no, I am fine, Minori-san."

"Ah, eh, g-good." Minori mumbled, fidgeting in place for some reason. "I-eh, I, uhm, I just wanted to say I think you did really good today, w-with the swimming I mean."

Sakura let another one of her half-fake, but also half-true smiles come to her face. Minori-san was so kind at times, keeping her company and everything. If only there wouldn't be such strange tension between him and Senpai.

There wasn't much time for them to speak though. The lesson had just officially ended, with Kishimoto calling everyone out of the water and sending them to the changing rooms, as they 'had to get out of there before the old women with ladles would arrive again'.

It sounded like something from experience, poor man.

On her way to the changing room, she bumped into her Senpai again, who was looking at her with obvious pride in his eyes.

"You did really fantastic today, Sakura." He told her with a large smile. "Really, to be so proficient after only one hour, I dare say you blew the rest of us out of the water."

Giggling at his lame pun, Sakura smiled back at him. "Thank you, Senpai. I couldn't have done it without all of you though, with your support and your advice, so thank you, really."

Then, without any warning of any kind, she stood on her tiptoes, and kissed her Senpai on the cheek.

It took her a moment to realise just what she had done, but when she did, she immediately made a mad dash to the changing rooms for the women, not daring to look back, her head spinning at her own boldness, her audacity to do such a thing.

That wasn't her. Surely that couldn't be her. She had been getting more assertive lately, but to kiss Senpai? Just like that? Ludicrous. If this kept up, she might have to go see a psychiatrist to make sense of what was happening to her psyche.

Almost laughing at the idea of her going to see a normal psychiatrist with her kind of issues, Sakura decided, tentatively, that her newfound audacity just might be a good thing. Ayako always said she had to be more assertive, and she did seem like some kind of expert on those matters, so Sakura had been trying to follow her advice on it. Even though progress was very slow-going.

There was no way for instance, she realised once more as she stood at the gates of the Matou-Estate, that she'd ever be able to stand up against Zouken himself. She didn't dare to, too fearful of what he would do to her and to the ones she loved.

There was one ray of hope in the darkness though. Zouken didn't know that the worms inside of her body were becoming more and more inactive, else he would have mentioned it already, and she sure as hell wasn't going to tell him.

It just might be her first act of true defiance, but she was going to leave him in the dark, knowingly withholding important information from him.

It was almost enough for her to grin.

* * *

Shirou liked to think he was not easily surprised anymore. With magic being real, his father being a wanted super-assassin, his sister being an artificial creation meant to house Heroic Spirits of old and most of all, Mjolnir having arrived, he would have thought himself to be reasonable desensitized to surprises.

He was wrong. Very, very wrong. Even after everything he'd experienced, life still had a way of throwing curveballs at him.

The sudden kiss on the cheek he'd received from Sakura was perhaps the best example of this. It had been wholly unexpected, and he had stood frozen for several seconds after the fact, unable to move a muscle.

Another example was that Tohsaka turned out to be much... friendlier than he had expected. He had known she wasn't the standard psychopathic Magus, but to discover she also had a kind side about her was... nice.

In a stark contrast, discovering that Iwakuni, the town he was currently visiting as part of his vigilante-duties, was a peaceful town without any criminal presence whatsoever was more unnerving than it was pleasing.

All other towns he had swept through during his self-imposed mission of hunting the dangerous Magi had had a large criminal presence in one form or another. Fuyuki-City, Ise and Urayasu had all been infested by gangs, or in Urayasu's case, gangs and something even worse.

Here however, in this rather idyllic looking town in the mountains, nothing of the sort could be seen. There was nothing wrong, no excessive waste on the streets, no homeless people in the alleys, no shards of broken glass of questionable origin laying around car-parking spots, and no criminals running around, no matter where he looked.

Shirou had been strolling through this town for six nights now, but nowhere had he been able to find any sort of activity he could put a righteous halt to, and neither had he found anyone even looking the slightest bit suspicious. He'd even gone civilian again just like in Urayasu, trying to tempt criminals into coming to him, but he hadn't been assailed even once.

Eventually, he had resorted to visiting the police station, and even listening in on the police scanners, but all he had heard were a few drunk and disorderly's, some traffic violations and more than a few cases of tax fraud. There was no indication of gang presence, or of criminals scouring the streets in order to rob and assault people. It was quiet and peaceful... and it _unnerved_ him.

Don't get him wrong, Shirou was happy such places existed, living proof that his dream was perhaps not so impossible after all, but he also couldn't help but feel suspicious of such a seemingly-perfect place. It was after all one of the towns that had been visited by the Magi he was hunting, which meant it had been suffering under mass-abductions not too long ago.

Some research on his side pointed out that there had in fact been a considerable criminal presence in Iwakuni in the recent past, but after those crooks had gotten too greedy, and had abducted too many people, the inhabitants of the town had banded together and had thrown the criminals out. All of them.

There seemed to be peace in Iwakuni for now, but Shirou was unsure how long that would last. In fact, it was entirely possible that the peace was already over.

Breaking the organised crime had caused a significant drop in the number of people going missing in Iwakuni for a time, with pretty much the only exceptions being voluntary runaways, but lately, as Shirou had read in the local newspapers, the statistics had changed for the worse again.

People were once again going missing, disappearing from their homes, from the streets, from their work. It seemed nowhere was safe. Whoever did this, they did not care where their victims came from or how important they were, nor how much they would be missed. It wasn't the how the Magi operated, but more like that Dead Apostle from Urayasu.

This was not a Dead Apostle though. Shirou had sniffed the town up and down and back again, but had found no single whiff of the smell that should have accompanied such a creature.

All of that searching had also ruled out mundane gangs. Iwakuni was quite small all things considered, and there weren't many places people could hide their gang-headquarters or the like. If Shirou hadn't found any hiding places yet, it was unlikely that there were any.

In others words, not only was the chance of finding clues related to the Magi very small, but he was also dealing with yet another new, bloodthirsty entity. Something that did not care about law-enforcement at all, if its callous behaviour was anything to go by.

Shirou wasn't sure if it was a being from the Moonlit World or just an ordinary psychopath, but he did know that catching it would be difficult. Catching 'lone wolves' always was, according to his father.

People had been disappearing for close to two months now, but it seemed to be going very slowly. Only one or two people a week, never more. Which was strange, since Shirou would have thought that something that could pull a man out of bed in a room where four other people had been sleeping would not satisfy itself with that low a number.

But no, two or three people were the absolute limit. Even drunken teens walking alone over the streets at night were left alone if the quota for the week had already been met.

The perpetrator wasn't even going for the easy targets at all. The man sharing a room with his friends was an example, but someone else had been kidnapped from the uppermost floor of a government building, while there were still several hundred people present.

Yet no working cameras, for some indiscernible reason.

It had driven Shirou to actually go civilian and visit the police station for real, taking part in one of the many search actions that were organised by the people of the town. No luck though. Not even a hint of anything suspicious had been found. The abducted people had just disappeared without a trace.

Shirou had then expanded his search-area to the town's surroundings as well. He had wandered the area for some time, trying to find anything worth mentioning in a twenty-mile radius, but that hadn't born any fruit either. Iwakuni was a mountain town though, with a lot of nature and rough terrain surrounding it, where many not-so-law-abiding people or creatures could easily hide, even from someone like him.

Not to mention the large lake in the valley, at walking distance from the edge of town.

The lake.

The first time Shirou had looked at it, it had given him cold shivers down his spine, and though he had gotten that impulse under control, it still gave him a very bad feeling every time he looked at it. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was horribly wrong with that body of water.

So naturally, he had gone to check it out.

He had harboured a faint hope that his feeling of wrongness would originate from strange and illegal happenings going on there, something tangible that he could actually interact with, and vanquish if needed, but it had turned out that it was not so.

There was nothing to be found around that lake. The citizens of Iwakuni avoided it like the plague, and any tourists visiting the town quickly picked up on that feeling of wrongness as well. As a result, all resorts, vacation houses and other living places there were empty.

Paradoxically, the presence of those resorts, vacation houses and living places indicated that people had in fact lived there, once, but didn't anymore for some reason.

Shirou had searched the grounds surrounding the lake several times, but had come up with nothing every time. Eventually, he'd chalked the feeling up to lingering dark emotions. Perhaps some kind of disaster had taken place there, or something like that.

He couldn't shake the thought however that he had missed something, something crucial. Something that would come back later to bite him.

Not at all happy with that feeling, Shirou had resolved to find out precisely what the deal was with that lake, and why the area around it was so deserted while it was clear many people had lived there in only recent past.

Walking over the street, Shirou watched people come and go, now that it was still twilight, their conversations easily audible to him if he listened carefully.

"… and I told him, 'yeah, no', and he said; 'But Gaspar-senpai', but I said 'no', and…"

"… dear, remember, you are beautiful the way you are…"

"… hmm, packed with muggles again. Come on kids, nine-and-three-quarters…"

All very normal conversations, but he wasn't here to overhear random strangers, he was here to find information about the lake. That was the reason he was wearing his civilian clothes after, instead of his vigilante outfit or magical armour. Though wearing the latter two would sooner get him considered a cosplayer than the actual Rakurai, it would still attract unwanted attention.

Well aware that no club or café would allow a teenager like him entrance at this hour, Shirou instead was going to pretend he was the well-behaved oldest son of a vacation-going family, who had been send at the tourist office of Iwakuni to gather information about that interesting-looking lake.

The tourist office was easily found, and no one prevented him from entering, as they would have at a bar of café. In fact, barely anyone shot him a glance when he entered, the other tourists being too busy looking at folders, and the employees at the desks being too tired by now to bother with him, after a long and tedious day of work.

After pretending to look at the folders for a bit, Shirou went over to one of those employees, a rather bored looking black-haired woman, who was in her mid-twenties, if Shirou had to guess.

Beneath that boredom however, he could swear there was… sadness as well, further punctuated by some tear tracks on her face, and her eyes being suspiciously red.

Choosing to not meddle in things that weren't his business, Shirou stood in front of the woman's desk, and waved his arms for a bit.

"Excuse me, ma'am." Shirou began as soon as he had successfully drawn her attention. "Could I ask for your assistance?"

Receiving a dull look and a nod in response, Shirou continued.

"I'm on vacation here with my family, you see, with mom, dad and my little sister, and we were wondering why no one ever seems to go to the lake, and if it is perhaps possible for us to go there anyway." Taking careful note of the woman's paling complexion, Shirou pretended not to notice her discomfort. "We were actually planning to go to the lake tomorrow morning, and I was wondering if…"

"NO!"

The shout echoed through the office, drawing the attention of both the other employees and the tourists mulling around and almost giving Shirou an aneurysm.

Noticing the attention they were now receiving, Shirou smiled inconspicuously, and before long, everyone turned away again, dismissing the small disturbance as unimportant. The woman didn't settle down however, on the contrary, she went as far as to lean over her counter and grab his shoulders for emphasis as she lowly hissed at him.

"Do _not_ go to that fucking lake!"

Blinking in sincere surprise at the woman's outburst and subsequent warning, Shirou studied her for a few seconds. "Why?"

"Because that lake is _evil_." She snarled, sneaking a quick glance around to ensure none of the other people were looking at them anymore. "It is evil and rotten; everyone in the city can feel it. No one who has any sense at all would ever get close to it."

As expected, even the mundane townfolk could feel the wrongness coming from the water. Shirou wasn't glad to have his suspicions confirmed, but he was happy to know of it at least. Perhaps, if he managed to find out why that lake was so... rotten, he could actually do something about it.

Perhaps reading the question in his eyes, or maybe just wanting to vent to someone, the woman continued, keeping her grasp on his shoulders. Her very strong grasp. If Shirou hadn't been enhanced like he was, that probably would have hurt.

"It used to be very lively there, you know." The women whispered, as if imparting a great secret to him. "People from the town, tourists, even inhabitants of further towns, they all came to the lake, for fun, enjoyment, sport, even large tournaments of all kinds. But then _it_ took residence in the lake, and no one has been able to stand the atmosphere there ever since."

"How long ago was this?" Shirou asked sharply. "And what do you mean by _it_?"

Either not noticing or ignoring his sudden shift from childlike to serious, the woman continued, lowering her voice even further, bringing her face closer to his, almost inappropriately so. Shirou really hoped the other people in the office would continue not looking at them.

"No one really knows what _it_ is." She admitted. "But ever since it came to live in there, some months ago by now, the air and the, the… the mood around the lake became horrendously foul. I think someone referred to that book from Stephen King when they named it _'it'_."

Shirou nodded slowly at the woman, before prying her hand of his shoulder. The woman continued staring at him, not even reacting to him forcing her hand open.

"W-well, I suppose it is not a good idea to visit the lake then?" He inquired once more, giving the woman a nervous smile, which he dropped when she wordlessly shook her head in the negative, still looking at him, silently.

Just as the atmosphere was about to become unbearable, she spoke up again, but couldn't get out more than a syllable before her voice broke:

"I-"

Taking a deep breath, and purposely looking away from him, she tried again: "I don't think you should. I- I am sorry if I'm coming over a bit strong. It's just, my cousin disappeared shortly after _it_ arrived, and people have continued to disappear and… Well, no one ever listens when I say I think the two occurrences might be connected."

She then bowed deeply, or at least as well as she could, with her desk being in the way.

Blinking at the sudden apology, Shirou shook his head and waved it off, telling her it was no problem, and that he was happy to have provided a listening ear at least.

Though he had to admit that it was slightly creepy, both the woman's continuous shifting in moods, and the story she just told him.

Promising her he wouldn't take his family to that lake, not that he had a family to take anywhere anyway, he said his goodbyes to the woman and quickly left, before things would become strange again. She had been a nice woman overall, sure, but that didn't detract from the awkwardness.

Once outside, he went over what he had just heard.

There was something in the lake, something that didn't belong there. It gave off an oppressive atmosphere to humans, and it had appeared some months ago.

 _"My cousin disappeared shortly after it arrived_."

Shirou didn't miss the implications of that. The other disappearances had started some months ago as well, and that coupled with the clearly anti-human atmosphere around the lake painted a picture Shirou was not happy with.

He knew how to deal with mundane criminals, he was quite sure he would be able to handle another Dead Apostle, but how was he supposed to fight something that he couldn't see and might very well be intangible?

Sighing to himself, Shirou decided to check out the lake one more time. Perhaps he could actually sniff out something this time, now that he knew for sure something was hiding in there. If he really had no other choice, he might take a dive too.

He walked with a calm stroll through town, seeing no reason to hurry just yet and wanting to scout the town out for a bit before he arrived at the lake.

After turning a few corners and walking several kilometres, Shirou arrived at a very quiet and seemingly empty part of the town.

Empty, as in empty streets. It was by no means rundown or something, to the contrary, every house seemed inhabited and quite luxurious at that. It was just that no one seemed to be outside at that moment.

Whether that was caused by the people living here loving their sleep or by a supposed serial-abductor being around, he didn't know, but he was leaning towards the second option, as it was quite a bit too early for everyone to be asleep yet.

It made sense that no one was willing to walk alone over street. It might be considered safe enough in the busy tourist areas to go outside, but here, in this part of town, the chance of ending up as the only one outside and thus the next victim was most likely too high for most people.

Better to stay inside, where it was safe.

Which was why Shirou had to raise an eyebrow when his eyes fell on a man that was in fact walking alone over the streets, as if nothing was wrong.

No, never mind that part! Why was the man wearing his pyjamas? Why was he wearing a sleepyhead, and slippers, while walking outside?

Doing a double take at the strange sight, Shirou wondered briefly if he was dealing with a drunk or an addict here, but the man seemed certain in his movements, purposefully walking towards wherever he wanted to be. He didn't stumble from the alcohol, and neither was he high-strung or half-asleep from possible drugs. He was just... walking there.

Shirou contemplated going over to the man to reprimand him about his life-choices, but ultimately decided to respect the man's freedom to live life as he wanted and to adopt a wait-and-see approach. Maybe all of this had a very good reason…

After walking parallel with the man for several streets however, and not seeing him slow down or really do anything that wasn't mindlessly moving forward, Shirou moved in a bit closer, hoping the man wasn't drugged to his gills on something quite a bit worse than the usual fare.

When he came close however, close enough to see the man's glazed eyes, he immediately realised drugs had no part in this.

Shirou's nose twitched, and so did his eye a second later.

Once again, a smell of magic made itself known to him.

This man was almost definitely under a spell of some kind, though the magic used seemed kind of weak. It was probably that weakness that had prevented Shirou from picking up on it until he had come closer than fifty meters. Fortunately, that same weakness also meant it shouldn't be that difficult to snap the man out of his trance.

Shirou quickly approached the black-haired, ordinary-looking man, and unceremoniously tripped him, catching him before he could smash face-first into the ground, and laid him down on the side-walk. Only to find he had to keep him down, as the man started trying to get up again, not even reacting to a strange person coming out of nowhere to tackle him.

Looking at the completely dazed eyes, the almost mechanical movements, and the lack of consciousness, Shirou confirmed once and for all that this man was indeed under some kind of spell, though for what purpose, he couldn't say.

Breaking it should be easy enough. He'd already determined that the spell was weak, and Kiritsugu had taught him plenty about breaking curses and spells that had been used against the mundane.

Placing his left hand on the man's forehead, while keeping him down with the other hand, Shirou focused, and pushed with the mysterious power, having found that to be a safer option than Prana, removing all foreign and malicious impulses from the man's mind, while also adding a slow working memory suppressant spell that would give the man the idea the next morning that everything that would transpire here had been a bad dream.

Seeing the man visibly relax were he had been laid, the dazed look disappearing, before the eyes closed, Shirou let go of him and took a few steps to the side, just far enough to be proper, yet close enough that he could provide aid should it be needed. The man had fallen asleep for now, but should be waking up soon.

Indeed, barely two minutes later, the man started stirring, before opening his eyes a bit, closing them again, and then shooting upwards with a yell, apparently having discovered he wasn't in his bedroom anymore.

"What? Why? Whe-When? How'd I get here?" The man murmured, his eyes shifting around, before they fell on Shirou. "W-Who are y-you?"

The man appeared to be close to a panic attack, as he spiralled down into incomprehensible mumblings and frantic motions with one of his arms, the other being held tightly against his body.

"Easy, sir. I am not here to harm you." Shirou spoke quickly. "I am only here because you seemed to be unwell and I thought you might need help."

The man stared in Shirou's eyes for a few seconds, initially seeming dubious, before he sagged slightly in relief, apparently taking Shirou on his word.

"Oh? Oh, right." The still unidentified man sighed, not quite relaxing, but moving away from a hair trigger at least. "Sorry for that, my boy, I was just nervous. With the serial killer around, and me being out during the night, I thought for a moment I was a dead man."

"You seem remarkably unsurprised at being outside in the middle of the night." Shirou remarked, trying to sound casual and only lightly curious. "I mean, you seemed scared of me, but aside from your first shock, you don't seem all that confused to be on the streets."

"That's because I already know the cause of me being here. I took too much of my medicine before going to sleep." The man half-laughed, half-sighed. "Tanaka-Sensei, my doctor I mean, already said that it could cause hallucinations, but I didn't expect sleep-walking as well."

Shirou nodded, though he didn't believe for a second the man's explanation was the correct one. There was no way the man's behaviour could have been caused by medicine, his actions had been far too concise and focused for that. This man had been under a spell, and a malicious one at that. Shirou had felt the evil intent when he had cancelled the trance, and he didn't like it one bit.

He liked it even less that the man had been walking in the direction of the lake.

He really needed to check that lake out, but before he could leave, he really should make sure this man would be okay. Also, he had to admit he was curious as to what kind of image the man would have conjectured in his supposed imaginations.

"What did you hallucinate of then?" Shirou inquired, which he immediately regretted when he saw pain flash across the man's eyes.

"My wife." The older of the two spoke softly, a lone tear appearing in the corner of his eye. "I thought I saw my wife beckoning me to come with her. Even though that's impossible, since she, well, s-she, she passed away last year."

"My condolences." Shirou offered quietly, to which the man nodded.

After waiting for a minute or so to let the man regain his bearings, he continued. "Do you want me to walk you home, sir?" He asked, painfully aware that he wasn't wearing any of his disguises, but not wanting to leave this man's fate to chance.

"No, it'd rather that you not." Was the answer, accompanied by a shake of a head. "Don't get me wrong, my boy, you seem nice enough, but I'm not taking any risks with a murderer on the loose. I hope you understand."

"Of course." Shirou assured the man, bowing slightly to show his sincerity in the matter. "Be well then, and good luck on your way home."

"To you as well." The man bowed back, before he resolutely turned around and walked away.

The man was probably wise to not show his home to a possible serial-killer, so even though it might seem rude and unwise to reject Shirou's offer, it really wasn't.

What was in fact impolite though was following the man anyway, against his wishes, even if it was only to ensure he safely arrived home, which was exactly what Shirou was doing.

After having successfully trailed the man to safeguard his passage home, Shirou clad himself in his vigilante outfit, called forth Mjolnir, and flew towards the lake at full speed. He now had an actual lead, so there was no time to waste.

Whatever was going on there, it just became a whole lot more serious. With the woman swearing by high and by low that something was in there, something actively hostile to humans, and the man walking straight towards that specific body of water, being drawn in by visions of his loved one, Shirou could no longer afford to take it slow.

Within minutes, he reached the lake again, and once more, the repressive aura and the smell of what he now could identify as primal magic hit him full-on. He hadn't thought much of the smell earlier, with Japan being full of ancient magical places and, regrettably, having a history of tragedies, but knowing what he did now, it was a lot more unnerving than before.

Coming down at one of the beaches, only a few metres away from the lake's shore, he stared out over the water, not expecting to see anything, but taking no risks with it either.

But, as expected, there was nothing to see. Nothing at all. Sure, there were houses and tents and cafes all around, but it was all very much dead. No people, no animals, no insects, the wind even had stilled completely. The boats floating on the water were abandoned as well and had been for some time, if their state of disrepair was anything to go by.

The lack of nature was particularly strange. With the humans having been gone for quite some time, nature should make an effort to reclaim the area, with insects buzzing around, grass and roots claiming every inch of the ground, small mammals such as rabbits flocking to the land, the area should have been more... alive.

Instead, everything seemed dead. It was utterly silent, absolutely nothing was growing and even the lake itself was entirely still. As in, not a single wave or ripple was visible, and hadn't been since he had arrived, as if the water itself was holding its breath.

Feeling curious, and admittedly slightly nervous at the strange sight, Shirou gathered some of the mysterious power and send a gale of wind right at the lake, in an effort to stir the water a bit.

His expression and mood turned completely grim, when that failed to do anything, the lake remaining as still as ever.

It was all the confirmation he needed, all the confirmation anyone would need. Something was wrong with that lake, and the chance that it was related to the Moonlit world was almost one-hundred percent.

Shirou send out another gale of wind, followed by another, and then one that was stronger than the previous three combined. It still did nothing.

Pursing his lips and ignoring the crawl up his spine, Shirou considered his options.

He could continue attacking the lake with his bag full of destructive attacks until the sun would rise again, in the hopes something would happen, but that had a low chance of success, and he only had a few hours before he needed to start with breakfast.

Another option was to stand here, still and unmoving, hoping it would draw out whatever was in there. If it hadn't come forth yet though, it probably wouldn't do so in the near future either, and again, he was short on time.

That left him without options for now, and with too little time to try something big.

It left a bitter taste in his mouth, but Shirou knew he had to retreat for now. There was nothing more he could do, except hope that the thing in the water hadn't been able to get a good look at him, since then he might be able to counter-ambush it should it attack him in its ignorance of who he truly was. The chance of that wasn't very high though.

Resigning himself to having to come back the coming nights, Shirou rapidly spun Mjolnir in a by now almost automatic motion, before shooting off into the distance.

As he left, he completely failed to notice a large shape moving away from the shore, as two completely blue eyes, set in an enormous, human-like face, watched as he flew away, strong tentacles moving in powerful motions as it propelled itself through the water.

But even though Shirou did not see the creature itself, he could feel its eyes in his back, and he knew he had been seen.

* * *

 **And that is that. Time for an Author's note.**

 **Shirou maps out the supernatural elements in his city, and stumbles on a few unexpected things. Like the worms he now knows to be familiars of Zouken, and of course the Golden King in the church.**

 **For the record, if Shirou and Gilgamesh fought now, only Mjolnir would stand between Shirou and immediate annihilation. The difference between them is too large.**

 **In fact, I'd like to say that at the moment, Shirou can only defeat the writer Servants (Shakespeare, Dahl, and the like) in battle, as well as most Casters as long as it remains purely physical combat. Even types as Frankenstein and Astolfo are currently beyond him, if mostly because of their larger experience in battle.**

 **Rin and Shirou meet, hurray, and they slightly hit off too. Enough at least for Rin to see Shirou as a safe option to be around when clad in a bikini only.**

 **Taiga finally has proof of the vigilante.**

 **And the swimming lesson, where Shirou has to deal with beautiful female friends. And Rin of course. Also, Sakura. Not to mention the girls also get an eye-full.**

 **Sakura gets a short POV, where we see her as she hopes to gain more confidence.**

 **Then the last part, where Shirou has new trouble in a new town. I don't think you can readily guess just what is hiding there, but it will have its own POV in the next chapter. Yes, it is sentient.**

 **Again, thanks to Hollowichigo12 and CrazyLich79 for all the support.**

 **Also, this is not in any way a Harry Potter fanfiction. That was a little joke. Any other references or cases of things from other verses are purely cameos, until stated otherwise by me.**

 **Ted says goodbye.**


	13. Surprise From the Other Side

**Alright everyone, hello to you, here's a new chapter and I've got some things you need to know.**

 **First, there are some deviations from canon in this chapter. Certain rules from the Nasuverse will be bend for a bit and a well-known character will turn out to be slightly OCC. This is because it will serve a purpose, not because I failed at remembering my facts.**

 **Also, you all probably don't even remember the names and the roles of the Magi that Shirou is hunting, so I'll do you all a favour and name them here:**

 **Burgon is the old man that is their leader and the one that brought them together. He is slightly charismatic, though much less than he thinks he is.**

 **Balefor is the one whose POV's we've been getting until now, the guy Waver is after.**

 **Oliver Waudenstad is the guy who looks a bit like a rat and is pretty much the crazy scientist of the bunch.**

 **Palerna and Alva are the ones who fight and bicker all the time and were also the ones who created the Dead Apostle Shirou fought a few chapters back.**

 **Okay, that was everything I wanted to say.**

* * *

 **Surprise from the other side**

It was a rather beautiful day outside in Fuyuki-City. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, there was no wind to speak of, and the general mood of the city was excellent. There was nothing to prevent the citizens from enjoying the day to its fullest extent.

Not everyone liked to come outside though, even during a day as close to perfect as this one. Some people just preferred to stay inside, with some of those people hiding away from the sun, some hiding from other people, and some of them hiding from enemies real and imagined, while guarding their house against thieves that could be out to steal their precious belongings and grandchildren.

A very good, and perhaps only example of the latter category was one Matou Zouken, patriarch of the Matou-family and someone who could definitely be described as a hermit, who lived inside of his own house and hadn't come out for longer than a few hours for decades.

He was far too afraid of other Magi attacking him, or sneaking behind his back into his house, claiming his tomes, his research, sparse as it was these days, or worse, the tool he had bet the entire future of his family on.

He was aware, in a deep, dark, logical corner of his mind that was long since buried under paranoia and madness, that the chance of such a thing happening was extremely low, especially during a peaceful time in-between Wars. The Wards and his other 'defences' would see to the safety of his house and belongings, while he himself was no slouch in combat either, despite his frail appearance. Thereby, there was no reason for a Magus to come to Fuyuki-City outside of Grail Wars, and the ones that lived in the city knew better than to challenge him.

Shat did that rational knowledge matter though, when he had over two hundred years of experience and building paranoia to counteract it? What did that matter, when he actually preferred the indoors these days? What did that matter, now that he had an almost daily task to fulfill in the basement?

No, he well and truly preferred staying inside, where he was at his strongest.

Zouken Matou was quite a pathetic existence. Composed of his Worm familiars, magic, and corpses, he certainly wasn't anything pleasant to look at or be around. His entire life revolved around his perverted and distorted dream of becoming immortal, a dream he relentlessly pursued both outside and during the Grail Wars, uncaring about who or what he had to sacrifice in order to reach it.

His options had become limited over the years, one chance after the other slipping through his fingers, and by now, he had only one real possibility left, which was why he was here, the place where he pretty much spent all of his time these days, patiently waiting for his granddaughter to arrive.

The age-old Magus looked out over his wormpit, aware of but barely noticing his familiars anymore, as they crawled around in there, waiting for the girl that would join them in there nearly every day.

His granddaughter was set to arrive in about half-an-hour, as per his orders, as she had returned only a short while ago from what could almost be considered her second home by now. Left with nothing better to do, Zouken's mind started to wander.

He had lived in Fuyuki-City for most of his natural and unnatural life, and, short of during the Grail Wars, he had never had so many unexpected things happen around him as during the last few months.

The first was the sudden thunderstorm of epic proportions that had heralded the start of the strange happenings. Not only had it been one of the worst storms of his life, it had been the first storm ever that had managed to temporarily cut his connection to his very own worms, nearly all of them, with only the ones making up his body remaining somewhat under his control.

It had been very unpleasant, but he could have handled it had it been a one-time occurrence. To his great consternation however, it had only been the first of an ever-increasing number of storms doing the same.

Zouken had not been idle after that first occurrence of course. He had attempted to strengthen his bond with his familiars in various ways and had ordered them to burrow deeper into the ground to hide better, as well as various other methods of protecting them. All futile in the end.

Eventually realising there was nothing he could do and that he was wasting precious time and energy trying, Zouken had resigned himself to accepting the weird moments of loss of control, though he would keep an eye out for solutions regardless.

The next strange matter was less relevant to him as a person, or to him a Magus, but still quite noteworthy to him, if only because of its strong connection to his valuable tool, his dearest _granddaughter_.

That matter was Emiya Shirou, the son of the late Magus Killer, easily one of the best assassins and mercenaries of recent times. The boy had been spurred into action by something, mere weeks or maybe even mere days after that first particular thunderstorm had passed over the city.

Where the boy had been largely passive in his actions before, either training with his father or by himself after the man's passing, he had suddenly started spending night after night hunting down the criminal elements of the city, with great success at that, not stopping until all the gangs and organised crime had been taken down and arrested.

Zouken had known all about the boy's dream, foolish and stolen as it was. The boy certainly made no secret of it after all, happily telling all and sunder about it when asked.

It was a ridiculous goal, but that was to be expected. If one survived the cursed fire caused by the Grail's destruction, as well as a subsequent adoption by a crazy, highly skilled assassin, then the chances of retaining an intact mind afterwards were very low indeed.

So it hadn't been all that strange that the boy would do something like crime-fighting, it even fitted him quite well. The real clinch was the timing of it all.

Zouken had expected that it would take years before the teen would be ready to take his first steps in fulfilling his foolish dream, but that had turned out to be hilariously inaccurate. Not only had he started several years earlier, but he had also effectively cleaned up the city in the span of weeks, showing himself to be far more competent than Zouken had estimated him to be.

Add to that the sudden increase in the potency and complexity of the boy's Bounded Fields and Wards, and Zouken was really starting to wonder if he had perhaps missed something about the child for all those years.

It was only the fact that his own knowledge about Bounded Fields, carefully hoarded over his many years of life, still overshadowed the boy's knowledge that had allowed him to find out about said increase in potency and complexity without the boy noticing his prodding, and even then, the old man wasn't entirely sure the teen hadn't perhaps noticed him after all.

He had played around with the idea that the boy might just be a genius in the craft of Bounded Fields, but had eventually rejected that theory. He would have noticed it far sooner if the boy was indeed a prodigy in that or any other field.

The explanation that Zouken later settled on was much more plausible, relatively at least. A major breakthrough had probably occurred in recent years in the general study of Bounded Fields and Wards in the Moonlit World, the knowledge having been spread around for everyone to use, allowing the teen to weave already crafted defences in the original Wards.

Also not particularly likely considering how his ilk jealously horded their research, but still far more probable than the boy developing an unreal talent in the span of what could not be more than weeks at most.

Either way, it had been a large oversight of him to almost completely miss such a development taking place in his city, one that could have cost him dearly should he ever decide to take on Emiya for whatever reason.

To make matters even worse, he had also noticed that the Grail itself had… 'twitched', for a lack of a better word, several weeks ago.

He didn't know what it meant, even with his extensive knowledge of the Grail's inner workings, but it, coupled with the sudden activity of the Golden Servant in the church, had unsettled him far more than he wanted to admit.

That brought him to his last problem; his Magecraft was getting weaker. Spells that were once as easy as breathing to him were becoming harder and harder as time progressed. Even just drawing Mana out of the air was becoming more difficult for him, and as a result, he had been forced to gradually shift towards relying on his worms to provide his Prana for him, through either his magnificently powerful granddaughter, or through certain other sources.

That difficulty, along with his waning control over his familiars and his sudden oversights in matters that such have been clear-cut and obvious, painted a grim picture for him. A picture he had tried to avoid for years but couldn't escape from anymore:

 _He was getting old_!

It was entirely possible that the next Grail War would be his last, and with the track record he had, he would die as nothing but a failure.

When he had been developing the Grail all those years back, alongside Tohsaka Nagato, Zelretch himself, and… Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, he had never expected that he would stand here now, four Wars later, with nothing to show for it.

He had outlived his associates by centuries, Zelretch had not shown himself to Zouken since the Grail had been completed, and every attempt to get the blasted thing in his possession had ended in complete and utter failure.

The Fourth War had objectively been the worst of the lot, though Zouken had to admit he had still derived a great deal of amusement from it. Seeing that fool of a Kariya running around the city with that lumbering giant of his, thinking he could actually defy Zouken, had made him laugh out loud numerous times.

It had been completely worth it to sit that one out.

He hadn't remained idle during the Fourth War of course, far from it. Not only had he obtained a new heir to his family line, but he had also picked up several shards of the manifested Grail after that Saber had been forced to destroy it. He could confidently say that the Fourth War might have been the most destructive of them all, but to him, it had also been the most productive.

He had been riding high in the following years, filled with actual hope of obtaining the Grail, even thinking himself unstoppable at times, which, looking back, might not have been the smartest thing to do, considering that both the Priest and the then-still-living Magus Killer would have been glad with any opportunity to end him.

Now though, it all came crashing down, with the world sternly reminding him he could not prolong his life forever, that soul deterioration was still a thing. Waiting for and joining the next War was probably still doable, but the one after, he would not see for himself.

Already, he was forced to hunt for new bodies to use as sustenance far more frequently than ever before. It had once amused him, the hunt, the consumption, coming up with new stories to tell the police, everything about it.

It didn't amuse him anymore, not when he had to do it so often. The hunt had stopped thrilling him years ago, and these days, he just heaped all of his victims unto the list of drownings, to the point where more than half of the people on that list were actually his victims.

His one ray of hope though was his granddaughter. Not only was she a nigh-perfect vessel for his worms, that were leeching her power to use for himself, but her body had also accepted the shards of the Grail that he had fused with his Worms before their transplantation into her, thus turning the girl into a potential Lesser Grail.

Well, he said 'accepted', but the shards had only been able to merge with about half of her Circuits so far, as her soul turned out to be surprisingly resilient against them, turning a procedure that should have taken hours at most into an affair spanning years.

That was actually a rather accurate description of his granddaughter as a whole; surprisingly resilient.

When she had fallen silent after three days of screaming, back when he had first locked her away in the pit, he had assumed her as good as broken. He had learned immediately after though that he'd been utterly wrong believing that. His granddaughter was not so easily subdued, and had retreated behind the iron walls of her mind, far out of his reach.

It became even worse for him after she had befriended the Emiya.

It had been very sudden, completely out of nowhere, that Sakura had returned home one day from her daily shopping trip with the boy walking next to her, carrying her bag for her, the chivalrous fool.

She had not taken the boy inside with her, fortunately, but Zouken had been able to see first-hand how the boy had sensed something wrong about the Matou-estate right away.

He had initially hoped he could use the connection they had build to his own benefit, to weaken her resolve, but ultimately, it turned out that it only seemed to bolster her confidence.

He had not given up on the idea however. When Sakura had also connected with that tomboy at the school he had been forced to send her to in order to keep the authorities off his back, he had tried to use that connection as well in order to slip his way into Sakura's mind.

But no, it turned out having those two 'friends' in her life had actually managed to strengthen her mind, somehow.

It almost seemed as if those connections were actively making her stronger, but surely that was nonsense…? Love or friendship didn't make one stronger. To the contrary even, his many years of living had taught him that such things were only weaknesses.

He had toyed with the idea of disposing of those two meddlers when it turned out they were working against him and his purposes, but he had eventually stayed his hand. The boy had shown himself too competent to be killed easily, and the tomboy's death would surely attract the boy's attention to him.

It wasn't that Zouken feared the boy or anything, but he knew that Kotomine was only waiting for an excuse to kill him, and the old Worm did not want to deal with that, at least not until he had another Servant at his back.

A door opening at the top of the stairs roused him from his thoughts, drawing his gaze towards his dear granddaughter, the main subject of his musings, as walked down the stairs, no single emotion on her face, no twitch in her body, nothing to indicate how she was feeling.

She was undoubtedly thinking some very bad things about him now, believing him to be a monster out to destroy her for no other reason than that he found it amusing, but that wasn't correct. He would rather have spared her from the fate of becoming his heir, truly, but he had been left without a choice. Everything he had done to her during these years, everything he had put her through, was not because he enjoyed her pain, but because it was needed for his goals.

There was no way she would believe that though, so he didn't bother trying to convince her of it. It did not matter anyway, his granddaughter had to be broken, not because of his sadism, but because he needed her broken to enact his plans.

In a few practiced motions, Sakura took off her clothes, revealing the beauty underneath.

Zouken had initially feared, back when she and the boy had first begun interacting, that the boy was after the Matou family-craft, or at least after his granddaughter as a female, but to his surprise, neither had been true, with Sakura never even realising the boy was a Magus, and the utterly clueless boy not even knowing just how much his granddaughter was infatuated with him.

' _Oh well, his loss,'_ Zouken mused. He himself might not desire any kind of female touch or companionship anymore, but that didn't mean he couldn't see that his granddaughter was quite the ideal wife.

He had honestly expected the the boy to see that as well, and to take his granddaughter to bed before they would have turned thirteen. He wouldn't have been opposed to the two strengthening their relationship like that. It was without a doubt that the boy would provide far more Prana than his worthless 'grandson' ever could.

That was a noticeable and rather glaring downside to his family-craft of using Crest Worms as familiars. The fact that the hosts needed enormous amount of Prana to survive and thus were always forced to find outside sources if they wanted to live one more day.

It hadn't been much of a problem to Zouken, who had finally seen a use for his worthless grandson after all these years. Even though the boy couldn't perform Magecraft himself, he still had some power to spare for others, which he had promptly been ordered to do with Sakura.

Frankly, Zouken had thought that the disappointment would have jumped at a chance to express his anger and desperation in a way that hurt the sister that had always been better than him, but once more, the boy had disappointed him. He had refused, and Zouken had to threaten to throw both him and Sakura into the pit for days to get him to budge on that.

The disappointment had even spent time in the library to search for different ways of Prana-transferral, he disliked it that much apparently.

There really weren't any other ways he could use to transfer power, but Zouken had let him search for himself without bothering to inform him of the futility of his actions. He had no more words to waste on that failure and at least it kept the boy out of his sight.

Emiya on the other hand…

It was perhaps a bit strange, but Zouken found himself genuinely considering the boy as a possible suitor for his granddaughter. He was powerful, proficient in Magecraft if his Boundary Fields were anything to go by, and sensitive enough to Mystery to realise that Zouken was not natural, something the Tohsakas had failed to realise for decades.

The boy being a first-generation Magi was what really sold the deal though. Without pesky relatives to worry about, he could use the boy's body as his next vessel to break Sakura completely if he ever felt the need to do so, and even if he chose not to possess the boy, their offspring would be almost guaranteed to be Magi.

Yes, if he hadn't been planning already on sacrificing the girl during the next Grail War, he would have already approached the boy with a marriage proposal, though he would have settled for Sakura becoming a mistress of his as well. There were many benefits and very little downsides to it as far as he could see.

It would have made Sakura happy too, Zouken knew, as he glanced with slight pity at the female that was now laying herself down in the pit. Her infatuation was so clear to everyone but the boy. Marrying him, or becoming his mistress, would have made her happier than anything else in the world.

It was impossible though. The boy would never agree with sacrificing Sakura, he wouldn't even agree with what Zouken was doing now, and that ultimately made him unsuited. It was a nice fantasy, but that was all that it was.

A single thought then sent the Worms crawling towards Sakura. It was very noticeable though that they moved with much more sluggishness and… reluctance almost, than they had only a year before.

He really was getting old, and his worms knew it too.

* * *

The water was cold. Yes, cold and dark, precisely how _it_ preferred the water _it_ lived in to be. The lake _it_ was residing in was deep and stretched far in all directions, giving _it_ plenty of space to move around.

The position of the lake was quite high in altitude, assuring lower temperatures and plenty of rain during the entire year, which were even more factors that were beneficial to _it_. If _it_ had to make a list of _its_ previous homes from best to worst, this lake would easily be best.

Then again, _it_ had only ever had one home before this one, so it was not all that impressive.

Still, the temperature, depth, surface-area and rain, as convenient and welcome as it was to _it_ , remained only secondary to the most important reason _it_ had chosen this particular lake to live in.

That reason was food. An excellent source of it was located so incredibly close by that _it_ could pull _its_ victims to the lake in no time at all. It was a simple matter of taking hold of a mind, showing it what it really wanted to see, and then leading the meat towards the deep waters, where the victim would drown.

It was easy hunting, and _it_ had never been as full as _it_ had been during the months _it_ had lived in this lake. _It_ had hunted numerous times, and _it_ hadn't failed to catch a prey even a single time.

Not a single time, except for the last time _it_ had tried, mere days ago. _Its_ attempt had been foiled by outside hands, by something that had thwarted the prey from reaching the lake. Since then, _it_ had been preparing for battle, for _it_ could not let such a challenge pass by unanswered.

 _It_ moved _its_ tentacles in powerful motions to propel itself towards the shore, preparing to draw another one of the little apes towards _its_ hungry maw. _It_ had been denied food the last time _it_ had tried, so _it_ was hungry.

If one would look upon _it_ , one would almost think themselves in a nightmare, nothing but a horrid dream filled with abominations that the conscious mind could not possibly make up.

The first thing one would inevitably notice about _it_ was the eerily human-like head _it_ possessed, which actually made up _its_ entire body, complete with two eyes, a nose, a sharp jawline, a strong chin, and long flowing hair, of a drab grey colour.

It could almost have been called handsome, if it hadn't been for some… minor problems; For instance, the head was completely blue, a dark blue that disappeared extremely well in deep water. It was also bigger than a van, much bigger, with a mouth large enough to swallow a car whole, filled with razor-sharp teeth that seemed rotten and black. The last, perhaps most disturbing detail was that it looked like it had been left to rot and wither for quite some time, until it looked half-decayed.

From the base of the neck and the back of the head, countless tentacles, coloured a slightly deeper blue than the head itself, sprang forth, endlessly writing and grasping, yet at the moment working hard at propelling the monster towards where _it_ wanted to be.

The monster was known as a Nokken. An ancient race of Phantasmal Beasts inhabiting lakes and pools, infamous for luring unsuspecting humans towards their homes, before drowning and devouring them, not necessarily in that order.

This particular beast was still very young for its kind, somewhere around a hundred years old, which was what had allowed it to continue to exist in the World of Mankind as opposed to being send to the Reverse Side of the world, where most of the rest of its kind wandered. Not that the Nokken had ever met any others of its kind, they had been long gone by the time it came into existence.

The Nokken had still been forced to spent most of its time sleeping though, making sure to not disturb the World around it too much, lest it be sent away by the Powers That Be. It did not fancy a trip to the Reverse Side just yet.

It had only ever woken up to feed itself, to draw in the little monkeys, and consume them as they inevitably fell to its lure.

The Nokken had lived that way for most of its existence, living in a muddy, polluted and warm lake in a Mana-starved place that caused it no shortage of headaches and pains. The precise location in human terms was unknown to it, but it knew vaguely that it had been living in the land of the Germans.

Life hadn't been ideal in that little pool, far from it, but it had been enough for the Nokken to survive, if barely, while sleeping its life away in order to stay in the World of Mankind. It was the only life it had ever known.

But then, some time ago, the Beast had suddenly, out of nowhere, felt something new. Something glorious and delicious, something that spoke of ancient times beyond mortal memory, a relic from a Past Age that had suddenly risen again, against all odds. An impossibility. Something from the Age of the Gods, or at least very similar to it.

It had drawn the Nokken towards the source like a moth to a flame. The Beast had abandoned the pool it had lived in for its entire life without a second thought, unable to resist the lure of a power it had only dreamed of before, a throw-back to ancient times, times when its kind had ruled the waters.

Using the underground waterways that only the Phantasmal Beasts of the Waters were aware of, it had arrived near the place where the smell originated from, though still quite a distance away. The Nokken wasn't certain its might was great enough to confront the source of the power immediately, and had chosen to recuperate from the long travel first.

It had taken residence in the perfect lake that it was now still inhabiting to this very day, and it sure as hell wasn't going to ever leave it again. Even if this mysterious power it had been following turned out to be nothing, it would still stay here.

Then, suddenly, while the Nokken had still been in the midst of recuperating, the source of the power had arrived, entirely of itself, at its lake, or at least, amidst the collection of humans right next to its lake.

Its visits to the lake itself had given the Nokken several excellent opportunities to study the source in detail, though the Nokken made sure to keep its distance. Something that gave off an aura like the source did was not an opponent to be taken lightly.

So it had observed the being, patiently watching it as it entered and left the city several times, silently gathering information about it.

It had been everything the Nokken had dreamed it to be. Its scent was dripping with Divinity. Power was overflowing from it, power that might actually allow the Nokken to finally exist in the Human World without having to fear _her_. The Nokken didn't really feel human emotions, but it had come very close to pure, unadulterated joy that one night.

Better yet, the wielder of the power didn't know how to use it, or maybe they didn't even know they possessed in the first place. They walked among the monkeys as if it was one of them, never once showing its dominance and power and never once claiming the possessions or the lives of the monkeys as their own.

The Nokken didn't know why exactly, but it felt as if the source should in fact be doing those things whenever it walked the World, as if that was what its kind did. The fact that it didn't belied either weakness or ignorance according to the Nokken's instincts.

Which the Phantasmal Beast didn't mind at all. It was planning on consuming the source after all, so if it was weak, well, all the better.

Still, the Nokken had decided to be patient. It still had plenty of time to consume the source, and it had no shortage of food here. There was no reason to hurry.

At least, until the source had prevented the Nokken from feeding. It had prevented its prey, yet another monkey it had snatched from a house, from reaching the lakeshore, and had then brutally attacked the water with wind, practically declaring its intention to slay the Nokken should the two ever encounter each other.

The source had left after that, but it would return to the lake before long, searching for the Nokken in order to do battle. The challenge it had left by attacking the lake directly was a clear indication of that impending return. It was a challenge the beast would gladly answer.

It was a hunter after all, a Beast created to be the perfect predator. Its teeth were sharp and strong; it could control minds and show its prey the specific images that would erode their resolve; Its tentacles, its numerous writhing tentacles, were strong and sharp, with razor-sharp tips and enough Mystery to injure rival-Nokken and other Phantasmal Beasts with ease.

The primal instincts that all hunters and warriors possessed told the Nokken that tonight would be the night of battle. Tonight would be the night it would anchor itself to the World, without ever having to fear _her_ again.

Reaching the shore closest to the collection of prey, it stopped propelling itself instantly, relaxing its tentacles and letting itself be taken further ashore by its momentum, where it laid perfectly still, trusting its blue colour to keep it hidden from sight. There it waited, patiently.

In its anticipation however, it couldn't entirely stop itself from dragging its tentacles through the layers of rock at the bottom of the shore, carving deep trenches in the stone.

In the moonlight, the Nokken's eyes shone with a feral gleam, hunger clear in those cold, cold eyes, not a hint of mercy or empathy to be found in them.

The Nokken almost felt giddy, if it could have felt anything like that to begin with of course. It was finally living like it was supposed to, on the prowl, hunting for its preferred prey.

Time to do battle. Time to eat.

* * *

When his eyes had fallen upon the mercenary that was supposed to bring the Tohsaka to him, Burgon had not bothered to stop the smile that wanted to form on his face. Rather, he even widened it, so the man in question could see just how happy he was.

Burgon had found that people instinctively trusted someone more if that person showed happiness at their presence, even if that happiness was not necessarily related with their presence in itself.

It had to be a sincere smile of course, even the dullest of idiots could tell a fake smile from a real one if they bothered paying attention, but simply thinking of something amusing got a sincere smile on your face easily enough. Burgon should know, that's how he made most of his friends after all.

A professional mercenary would not be so easily manipulated of course, but perhaps it could still provide him with just that little edge that would keep the man loyal under duress.

"Good morning, sir, I cannot possibly express how happy I am to see you here." He thus proclaimed loudly, throwing his arms wide open as if to embrace the man. He was aware that he was exaggerating his supposed happiness to the point of awkwardness, but that was to gauge the man's reaction. "Truly, I tremendously appreciate your swift response to our invitation. With a man of your skill and renown at our side, we are sure to succeed in no time at all."

 _As if_. Burgon was well aware that the only reason the man was here was because he was rather unknown and fairly low on the list of good and dependable mercenaries. They had needed someone who wouldn't be missed for quite a long time, and since a good mercenary suddenly going to Japan might have attracted some unwanted attention, they'd had to settle for a mediocre one.

Still, there was little doubt the man was good enough for the job. He had to be, if dear Oliver had suggested him. His resume, while not nearly on the level of Emiya Kiritsugu's- but then again, whose resume was?- was adequate, so he should be able to capture one foolish young girl without trouble.

"You are of course aware of your mission." Burgon went on, placing his hand on the mercenary's shoulder in a fatherly way. "You will bring us the Tohsaka, and…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, old man." The mercenary scoffed, throwing off Burgon's hand and taking a step back, narrowing his eyes at the old Magus and puffing out his chest. "I am to wait until the Tohsaka-girl gets to that city, Hiko-something-or-the-like, before abducting her from her hotel and bringing her to you lot. Fine."

The man was correct in his summary, though the elderly Magus wished he could have been more elegant in his summarisation of the facts. Surely it wouldn't hurt to be a little more polite? They were all British here after all, even the mercenary himself. Politeness, even if obviously faked, was supposed to be in their blood.

Then again, there probably was a reason that the mercenary had made himself an enemy of several noble houses of the Clocktower. Those stuffy gits had terrible long toes, and a tendency to remember grudges for a very long time.

"Still though," The mercenary grumbled. "The guy who contacted me said you have been chasing this girl for months. Why haven't you been able to grab her by now? Or at least hired a merc sooner?"

A fair question, though Burgon had to admit himself slightly ashamed of the answer. He could only hope the man didn't have a mocking personality.

"We tried." He responded ruefully. "But she kept slipping through our various nooses because of continuous outside interference. It would seem that someone else keeps tripping the traps we had set out for her."

The criminals they had sent to her city being felled by a mysterious vigilante was one thing, but added to that was the fact that the familiars they had been sending to Fuyuki-City kept being destroyed by something there, while they were absolutely sure that the Tohsaka was completely unaware that she was being followed.

So, it had to be outside interference, though by who and why they didn't know. The only thing they were reasonably sure of was that they didn't do it to help Tohsaka, or they would have informed the girl by now.

"Outside interference?" The mercenary asked, tensing up slightly. "You didn't mention anything like that in your request. What are you up to, old man?"

"We weren't sure back yet when we contacted you." Burgon immediately countered. "And we are quite certain that whatever or whoever is interfering won't do so in Hikone. From what we were able to discern, they aren't doing this to help Tohsaka, so they shouldn't be a problem outside of the borders of Fuyuki-City."

The mercenary was silent for a few moments, glaring hard at Burgon, no doubt in an attempt to be intimidating. All it did however was to remind Burgon just how far this man was removed from the top when it came to mercenaries.

Richard Burgon had once, only once, had the supreme displeasure of meeting Emiya Kiritsugu, back before Burgon had obtained a Sealing Designation. He remembered it as if it had happened yesterday. The man had just looked at him with an impassive gaze, just in passing, not even saying a word or really paying all that much attention to Burgon, but Burgon had been quaking and shaking in his boots all the same, feeling as if death itself had walked past him.

Compared to even just a casual look from _that_ man, the most intimidating stare of the mercenary in front of him was no more frightening than a pouting toddler.

Burgon made sure to smile extra brightly, choosing not to comment on the poor attempt at intimidation.

It did sadden him though, in a certain way. This mercenary was British, lived close to the Clocktower and had quite a number of years and successful missions under his belt. He should have been the cream of the crop, but he was still so… unimpressive. The only solace was that he was at least better than his Japanese counterparts.

Deftly pushing away the somewhat amusing images of bumbling Asian mercenaries, Burgon returned his focus just in time to see the man lower the intensity of his glare, a note of respect in his eyes. Respect that had its existence further confirmed by the hand that was now offered for a shake.

"James Brunevis." The mercenary, James, said gruffly after Burgon had shook the offered hand. "Seems like working for you might just be interesting after all. I'll get the girl for you or die in the attempt. This, I swear."

Feeling surprised at the man's sudden oath and dedication, but refusing to let that surprise show, Burgon smiled happily, not even having to fake it.

"Much appreciated." He said, reaching into his pocket to pull out a small ruby. He had been planning on giving it to the mercenary anyway, so now was as good as ever. "You wanted to be paid in gemstones, so here is a small initial payment, one that can even be considered a bonus. Do take care when handling it, some of my Prana might be left in it."

Some of his Prana certainly was left in it. There was a tracking spell on it after all, just as a little bit of insurance. Trust was good, but only when given sparingly.

Burgon did not doubt the man would check the gem for precisely such spells, but he was confident the spell was hidden well enough. This mercenary was not known for being particularly sensitive to magic after all.

With a nod, the mercenary accepted the gem, put it inside one of the pockets on his coat, and left without a word. Most likely, he'd make his way to Hiraizumi on foot, before acquiring a different method of transportation to Hikone.

He would probably spend his time preparing for the mission once there. If everything went well, the mission itself should only take a few minutes to complete, getting into the hotel, taking the Tohsaka and then getting out again, but there was a lot that could go wrong during those few minutes.

At least, Burgon thought so, but since he wasn't a mercenary- perish the thought- it was just an assumption on his part. Maybe it would in fact be hilariously easy for any trained professional.

Putting the whole matter out of his mind for now with a mental shrug, the old man turned around, his thoughts already back at the experimentation table.

Walking back towards the large castle he and his fellows were using as their base of operations, Burgon had no chance of seeing the sinister grin suddenly appear on Brunevis' face, and neither had he a chance of hearing the muttered 'gullible old man' coming from the mercenary's mouth.

* * *

Sitting calmly on a rooftop at the edge of Iwakuni, Shirou watched out over the lake, searching for any disturbance that would suggest something was out of place in there. A wave going against the wind, air bubbles coming up from a source that was moving faster than should be possible for any fish, or large shadows moving just below the surface.

It hadn't produced any results so far, but he was honestly stumped on any better methods of finding the creature hiding in there. It wasn't like he could just go swimming in there, and flying over the lake would just cause the creature to go into hiding until he was gone again.

Still, while he never would complain about the things he had to put himself through in order to help people, he was beginning to get annoyed at having to waste so much time, time that could have been better spend.

He had been sitting on the rooftops of different buildings for days now, and he wasn't any closer to ending the threat in Iwakuni than he had been at the very beginning of the roof-sitting spree. It had been a lot of wasted time, with the only consolation being that no more people had been taken since he started his vigile.

He knew this, both because he hadn't seen anyone going to the lake during his patrols, and because there hadn't been any news on someone disappearing, not from the official news agencies or from the police.

Not a complete guarantee, but it was as good as he was going to get.

By now though, he was almost hoping another entranced person would come by on their way to the lake. He would put a stop to it at once of course, but it would at least provide him another clue, another chance to find the thing that was responsible for all of this. Then he could go out and actually do something useful again.

It would be a lot better at least than sitting around all night, pondering about the impact he was making on society now that his existence had definitely been revealed to the public at large, and whether he was making an actual difference with his actions.

At the very least, it seemed most people regarded him as excellent entertainment. He had even gotten himself a name, Rakurai, meaning Lightning Strike. Shirou honestly did not know what to think of that. It was vaguely unnerving that he, someone who could control thunderstorms, had gotten such a name from the police.

Perhaps he would one day meet the mind behind the name and discover what had prompted them to name him such, hopefully it had nothing to do with his more esoteric gifts, but he deemed it unlikely he ever would.

It wasn't a bad name, and he would definitely use in the future should he ever have to give someone a name while in his vigilante apparel.

The downside of his newfound fame however was that he was no longer an unknown, but an actual fighter of evil who prowled the night hunting for evildoers. Every criminal now knew to prepare for him, making his job a lot more difficult than it was before.

Granted, his ability to travel between cities at an extreme speed did give him somewhat of an edge still, especially during the first nights in a new town, when no one was yet aware of his presence in the city, but once the rumours would start flying, the crooks would dig themselves in deep and be that much harder to root out.

A lot of his troubles actually seemed to come from slippery enemies these days, as opposed to enemies that were simply stronger than him. Even the creature in the lake preferred to hide rather than engage in honourable combat with him. It was a difficult situation, but Shirou didn't see any obvious solution for now to deal with the slippery ones, except searching better and striking faster.

Putting the depressing matters out of his mind, Shirou turned his attention towards less loaded matters, such as the swimming lessons he'd had thus far.

Their group still consisted of the same people as it had during the first lesson and it was likely to stay that way until the entire course had ended. Kishimoto-Sensei had been very satisfied with their progress and had made it a more or less permanent arrangement. To the great disappointment of many, who had apparently hoped to have _the_ Tohsaka Rin join their group one day, or so Ayako had told him when he had wondered about the many foul looks cast his way.

Ayako, Minori, Issei and Shirou himself were doing just fine, having received lessons of their own in the past. The basic course they were following wasn't all that hard in comparison.

Sakura was progressing extremely fast, at an almost unreal pace even. She was simply what one would call a natural, and she was quite happy with that too, if her giddy smile every time he or Ayako praised her was any indication.

On the other side, and completely to the contrary, Tohsaka clearly had great difficulty with getting her skills up to par. Having begun as unskilled as Sakura, the black-haired girl was now far behind the other girl, struggling to keep the pace of the lessons. It almost seemed as if all the extra skill that Sakura possessed had somehow been taken from Tohsaka.

That was a phenomenon he'd heard of, but normally, it was only spoken of in jest, and only between siblings. It had to be just a coincidence.

Despite her lack of talent though, Tohsaka still managed to keep up without needing extra lessons through nothing but sheer effort and dedication. It was very impressive to see how hard she worked to swim just fast enough or last just a bit longer underwater in order to complete the exercise.

Shirou knew that Tohsaka was a very dedicated Magus of course, and by nature, Magi weren't people who would give up easily. They may often be immoral, greedy and senseless, but Shirou had to give them that at least.

Still, the tenacity Tohsaka showed during the course went even beyond the stubbornness of a normal Magus. Even though swimming was a skill most of the inhabitants of the Moonlit World would have sneered at, before dismissing it and hypnotising their way out of it, she worked incredibly hard to get her skills up to adequate levels.

He had known of course that she was hard-working and a talented Magus, and that she was independent and self-confident, living alone in her estate after all, and that she was smart, deductive and inquisitive, but now he could confidently add tenacious to that list, not to mention relatively honourable, for not even trying to hypnotise her way out of it.

She had warmed up to everyone in the group overtime, except for Sakura, who she seemed to avoid and was avoided by in turn, and Issei, who seemed reluctant to interact with her too much. Even Shirou, whom she had first talked to after discovering him standing creepily behind a bush, found himself treated with respect and, if he squinted really hard, with the tiniest amount of actual warmth. He did not by any means consider himself a master manipulator or an expert on reading people, but he could tell she was sincere, if aloof, while speaking with him.

He had found he had to seriously revise his opinion of her over the course of the lessons. The more he actually interacted with her, the more she defied his expectations. She wasn't just a lying, crafty and manipulative Magus, but more of an aloof but sincere teenage girl trying to find her own place in the world.

Her mask was much less well-crafted than she seemed to believe. Ayako had seen it too, commenting to him that 'Tohsaka might act all tough and uncaring, but she's quite a softie underneath all that'.

Not to the extent that everything she said was true and that she wore her heart on her sleeve of course, but he could see that her smiles were less fake than he had expected, that the praise she gave was true and well-meant, and that she was, to some level, actually enjoying having them around, him and Ayako in particular.

He had found it a lot easier to interact with her naturally after realising all of this, without being guarded every second for any mistake he might make that would perhaps set her on a path that would lead to his exposure, which was fortunate, considering she was apparently planning to attend the same highschool as he did the following year.

It would seem Homurahara was about to receive some... _interesting_ students.

his behaviour towards her had rubbed off on the others too, who seemed to follow his example in being warmer to Tohsaka as the lessons passed by. The only exception was once again Sakura, who had not even deigned to look the other girl in the eyes yet.

It was very strange for the kindest girl he knew and Shirou could not deny it worried him. He wasn't sure what to do about it though, and could only resolve once more to stand ready in case they needed him one day. He truly wanted those close to him to be happy, and Sakura definitely was one of the people closest to him.

Maybe Tohsaka would qualify too one day, after he had worked up the courage to tell her about him being a Magus. 'A close relationship is based on trust', as his father used to say, usually with a melancholic expression on his face.

Who knows, maybe she'd let him live after his confession? Maybe she'd not immediately alert the Clocktower of his existence? And while he was wishing for impossible things anyway, maybe she would even let his obviously divine properties slide as well, without trying to strap him to a table to do her research?

Maybe… Hopefully… Probably not… Yeah, he couldn't even convince himself. 'Hell hath no fury like a woman told about hidden secrets', was one more thing his father had told him during training.

On that note, if he was planning on telling Tohsaka about himself one day, shouldn't he do the same to Sakura? She had been his friend for years, and was in fact far less likely to reveal his existence or his secrets to anyone, or to strap him to a table for dissection.

'T _hat would mean dragging her into the life of a Magus'_ , he reminded himself sternly, just as he did every time he contemplated on telling Sakura the truth of who and what he was. Knowingly associating yourself with a Magus was dangerous, and with him, it was even worse than usual. Sakura really had to be kept out of it, for her own safety.

In all honesty though, he was also nervous about how Sakura would react. Would she forgive him for lying to her for all these years? Would she be angry with him? Would she fear him?

Considering she was his best friend, the latter two possibilities weren't very likely, but he didn't know for sure and he didn't particularly care for finding out.

He cared about her, and there was no way he wanted to lose her.

Shirou looked out over Iwakuni, a soft smile on his face, his mind filled with images of pretty girls with purple hair and purple eyes, before he froze as his eyes fell on a strange sight, all traces of mirth disappearing from his face.

It was the middle of the night in a peaceful city, so he was pretty sure it was quite abnormal for a normal civilian to walk so brazenly towards the lake, on their own, in nothing but their sleeping wear. Even if more so if it was a teenager, clearly not older than fifteen. That was something that he'd best put a stop to.

"Trace on". Shirou muttered, Reinforcing himself, before jumping off the rooftop towards the person. It took him a few seconds to catch up, and a low sweep with his leg then brought the teen down. Once more, Shirou made sure to catch him and gently place him on the ground.

Again just like before, Shirou placed his hand on the boy's forehead and channelled the mysterious power, removing the taint and adding his own compulsion to the boy's mind to hurry home before the sun would rise.

As soon as the compulsion had taken place, Shirou let the teen go and took a few seconds to watch him leave, ensuring that he was indeed going back into town and not towards the lake again.

The moment the teen had disappeared between the houses, Shirou turned around lightning quick, summoned Mjolnir from his mind, and flew towards the lake.

Landing on the edge of the body of water, Shirou could only hope he had been fast enough, that his prey had not managed to give him the slip again and that he did not have to spend another week sitting on rooftops waiting until something would happen.

Really, he would rather dive straight into the lake to find whatever did this than again waste so much time sitting around doing nothing, no matter how much of an advantage his prey might have in the water.

During his first scan of his surroundings, Shirou couldn't see anything strange, but he did awaken his Circuits fully and kept the mysterious power ready, with Mjolnir in combat position. The smell of putrid water, that he had learned to associate with whatever was in there, was now clearer than ever after all.

Shirou's eyes couldn't perceive the creature, so it was clearly an expert in camouflaging itself, but its inexperience in truly hiding still showed clearly. It had completely neglected to mask its smell, or to prevent Shirou from clearly feeling its burning gaze focused right on him, or even to hide the unnatural ripples in the water it was causing.

Now to track it down…

'SPLASH'.

A sudden splash to his left drew Shirou's attention away from whatever was in front of him, as he tried to find the source of the sound, his body tensing up even further at the jump-scare.

It was barely a second later that he realised how foolish it had been to avert his eyes, as he felt something coming at him really fast from the water, coming closer way too fast…

Shirou threw himself to the side with as much speed as he could squeeze out of his still Reinforced body, hoping he had been fast enough to dodge whatever was coming at him.

In the end, he was in fact fast enough. But only just.

* * *

The Nokken stretched out its vile influence over the town next to its lake, already looking for a tender and juicy victim from among the many different possibilities.

The beast fully expected the Source to intervene before its prey would reach the water, but there was always a chance it would not. Either way, the Nokken would feed tonight.

The choice however was quite a difficult one. Should it choose the young female stumbling home after a party? Should it choose the old man wandering the dark for some reason? Perhaps something could be said for the little boy that slept in a separate room from its parents?

Eventually, its eyes fell on a young male, walking over the street in a daze after having lost its… grandfather? Yes, its mind clearly said the young human had lost its 'grandfather' recently and was sad about it.

Perfect, a prey with a very clear weakness to exploit.

Just like the dozens of previous times the Nokken had drawn in its prey, it began by sending a little bit of influence, just enough to ensnare the human's mind a bit, causing the boy to be reminded extra strongly of the grandfather.

Then, it continued spinning its webs, sending sounds and images to the boy, making him hallucinate about the grandfather and other things he desired, slowly entrancing the young human.

The Nokken's lure was more than just that though. The Beast could, through these hallucinations, directly invade the mind and take direct control over the human's actions, almost similar to a Magus' hypnosis, if more bestial and brutish.

In truth, the Nokken could also take control over its victims without using hallucinations, but its species had found that showing humans what they really wanted to see made them easier to control, less likely to resist the foreign influence trying to take over their minds, more _malleable_.

The boy had been ensnared beyond escape now. The Nokken's influence had run deep into his mind and the teen had long since surrendered to the images.

The Nokken watched with an emotion akin to glee as the human started walking towards its waiting maw. Its stomach rumbled in anticipation.

Yet once more, its attempt was foiled before the prey had even left the city, as a certain redhead jumped down like a bird of prey to save the poor unsuspecting victim from the Beast's clutches.

Smelling the same heavenly scent as before, the Nokken could feel how its connection to its prey was harshly snapped, the feedback actually giving it a headache.

The human had been freed.

Despite losing its prey again, the Nokken wasn't in any way chagrined or otherwise annoyed, to the contrary even, it felt only something akin to elation, as the source of the heavenly smell once more moved itself towards the lake.

This time however, this time, it would not leave again.

As the source landed beside the lake, the Nokken remained very still, having locked its eyes onto its prey, silently panting in the water as it prepared to attack. Slowly, very slowly, it started branching out its tentacles, elongating them by growing them from its neck, until they were able to reach all the way to the shore.

A quick attack, a swift thrust with a tentacle or three, straight through the torso, should be enough to finish the human. The Nokken's blackened teeth were displayed clearly as the mouth pulled itself into a grin at the prospect.

Ever so slowly, the tentacles slid over the sand, passing into shallow waters, inches away from emerging. Despite only needing three, the Nokken had prepared almost three dozen tentacles, just in case. It still did not really know what it was dealing with after all.

Now it just had to wait for the correct moment, when the prey would turn its attention elsewhere. Then the beast would be free to strike with all of its not-inconsiderable might.

With that in mind, it laid still, and waited…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

… How long was that going to take exactly?

The prey continued watching over the lake, its gaze seemingly locked onto the Nokken, despite the beast knowing that the prey could not see it. Yet that burning gaze was not turned away even once.

Aware that it could not lightly risk an attack while the prey's eyes were locked onto it, the Nokken moved another tentacle to the bottom of the lake and picked up a nice big rock from there. Bringing the tentacle to the surface, cleverly hidden behind its own form, the Nokken silently threw the rock a distance away.

It created a loud splash, ripples extending all over the water, and the prey's sight turned away, attracted to the sudden noise and movement.

NOW!

The Nokken trust six tentacles forward, aimed for the prey's torso, hoping for a quick kill, before it could pull out any tricks it might have.

It almost seemed to happen in slow-motion, the tentacles coming closer and closer to the target. The Nokken's grin widened further. Half-way from the water to the prey, and said prey still hadn't made a movement to dodge.

When the tentacles came within arm-reach of the prey, the beast knew that it had won the battle.

The slimy limbs moved with purpose…

And hit absolutely nothing.

The Nokken had only half a second to wonder about the sudden disappearance of the human, before an incredible pain suddenly shot through its outstretched tentacles.

The Phantasmal Beast couldn't suppress a wail of agony, as it realised that over half of each of the six tentacles had been obliterated, the remaining stumps bleeding black blood, the rest of them reduced to chunks of minced meat.

Biting through the anguish it was experiencing, the Nokken once more got its prey in its sight. The human had crouched slightly, one hand held up in a defensive position, the other hand holding a- a- a…

A- a- a- a- a…

A...

…

' _WRONG!'_

The Nokken's instincts cried out as the beast beheld the thing in the prey's grasp. Shivers started wracking the beast's entire body, uncontrollable shaking, as terror, the likes of which it had never felt before, started overtaking its mind.

' _Wrong!Wrong!WRONG!DANGER!PAIN! &F0R31GN!'_

That thing was wrong! That thing didn't belong here! It was…

Then just as suddenly as its instincts had started blaring at the utter wrongness of the _thing,_ they calmed down again, the Nokken's headache and panic disappearing instantly. Now clearly noticeable was a feeling of sheepishness, a feeling coming from the _Thing_ in the prey's grasp.

Once more the Nokken had very little time to ponder the new developments, as the prey, which seemed entirely unbothered by the monstrosity in its hand, suddenly sprang forwards to engage it, the beast's cover, previously so well-maintained in the water, now blown to hell.

* * *

As he sprang towards the creature that had suddenly revealed itself, Shirou thanked Mjolnir, Thor, Kiritsugu and everyone else who had ever taught him anything about combat from the bottom of his heart. He was even willing to throw Taiga in that mix, as well as every criminal he had fought, including the Dead Apostle. If it hadn't been for the battle-experience gained from his interactions with them, this fight would have been over before it had even begun.

Like a fool, he had allowed himself to be distracted by a child's trick. A thrown rock. Definitely embarrassing to have fallen for that.

Fortunately, he'd sensed the approaching… tentacles? Yes, tentacles, before they had been able to hit him. With only a fraction of a second to spare, he had dodged, before instantly lashing out with Mjolnir towards the threat. He hadn't held anything back, he knew he couldn't afford that, not against a creature like this.

A Phantasmal Beast. That was the only option as to what this could be, the only thing that would explain both its completely unnatural appearance and the now-no-longer-subtle scent that was exuding from it.

Shirou had precisely zero experience with Phantasmal Beasts. They were supposed to have been locked in the Reverse Side of the World, not inhabiting lakes next to small towns in Japan.

All he knew was they were strong, incredibly strong, coming from the Age of the Gods, and that they were resilient and far more powerful than humans in every way. Many Beasts also had extra attributes, such as poisonous breath, skin that could not be penetrated by metal weapons or nigh-limitless regeneration.

Which was why he was very happy to see just how much damage he'd dealt to the creature with a single swing with Mjolnir. Perhaps this Beast had enhancements and extra attributes, but it was clearly no match for a weapon from beyond the edges of the known multiverse.

Shirou then went on the attack, Reinforcing his entire body to the uppermost limit, giving himself a considerable boost.

Shirou brought Mjolnir down on some other tentacles writhing just above the surface of the lake, the Beast seemingly too occupied with screeching over its already-wounded limbs to retract them in time.

The blow landed successfully, and four more tentacles were reduced to gore and black blood.

Unfortunately, this attracted the attention of the monster, as it lashed out at Shirou, forcing him to jump back onto the shore to dodge, unwilling to test his durability against those tentacles. He was getting a very chilling feeling from them.

Not deterred by this, Shirou threw Mjolnir at the creature, which managed to dodge by the skin of its teeth by diving under water, though not without having a part of the top of its head be blown off, eliciting another ear-piercing screech from the being.

Once underwater, it was not surfacing again, Shirou noticed as he called his weapon back to his hand with a thought. It would probably try to attack from there, safely out of his reach.

As if to prove him right, about a dozen more tentacles then sprung from the water, aiming straight for Shirou. His limbs, his torso, his head, one or more tentacles for every part.

A quick role to the side had him deftly dodging the assault, before he responded with a bolt of lightning. Once more unable to retract its limbs in time to dodge, the creature lost five more of them as the lightning struck.

Not giving it time to recuperate, Shirou rushed to the shore, stopping just before he reached the water, before drawing _'Sowilo'_ , the Rune of Fire, in the air in front of him.

From the Rune, a sea of flames sprang forth, just like they had during the battle with the Dead Apostle. Shirou had aimed them right at the lake, in a bid to boil the water and force the Beast to the surface. It was unlikely he'd be able to warm up the entire lake, but he should be able to heat a small area.

For a short while, Shirou continued casting fire at the lake, dodging tentacles at the while, as they seemed to grow more frantic by the second. The creature itself did not rise though, despite the water reaching uncomfortable temperatures now. The Beast should definitely at least be inconvenienced by this, but it stubbornly remained under water, showing a modicum of intelligence and caution.

It did send more tentacles to try and kill Shirou, or at least force him to cease the attack. The long, black limbs writhed, spasmed and twitched as the temperature around the main body increased, but still struck at Shirou with unmitigated ferocity and aggression.

Eventually, Shirou was forced to let go of the Rune, as six tentacles at once tried to spear him through the chest again and he had to throw himself to the side in order to avoid them.

Firing off several more lightning bolts from his hammer, hitting and obliterating about a dozen more tentacles, Shirou wracked his brain for a strategy that would allow him to kill the creature that was undoubtedly responsible for the many disappearances from Iwakuni.

Basically, the problem was that the creature was now inside its preferred environment and Shirou had no way of forcing it out of there. It could hide, attack and flee at its leisure, and there wasn't much that Shirou could do about it.

If he wanted to stand a chance at killing the thing, he would have to remove it from the water.

' _Easier said than done of course.'_ Shirou mused, dodging yet another tentacle before blasting it to pieces with yet another lightning bolt. _'I really wonder just how many tentacles that thing has. Maybe it can regenerate them? No! Focus! How am I going to get it above the surface?'_

A sudden idea then sprang up in his mind. It was a rather dangerous idea, but it would be effective. Or at least, Shirou hoped it would be.

With a ferocious yell, and a quick mental prayer to the Soul of Thor, Shirou threw himself forwards with abandon, landing at least waist-deep in the water, greatly surprising the Phantasmal Beast, if the useless flailing of the tentacles around him was anything to go by.

Before the creature could regain its wits and continue attacking him now that he was at a disadvantage, Shirou lashed out and grabbed a tentacle, beginning to pull the thing upwards towards the shore, throwing every bit of power he had available into it, reinforcing himself to the absolute maximum. It might very well be his only chance at getting the Beast out in the open, so he couldn't hold back.

The Beast seemed to be greatly surprised, as it didn't offer any resistance to Shirou's unorthodox attack, allowing itself to be dragged along until the top half of its body was exposed to the open air. Shirou promptly fired another lightning bolt at it.

Though he wasn't able to put much power behind the attack, wrapped up in dragging the beast as he was, it was enough to scorch a large part of the Nokken's skin, as well as making its spasm and causing it to temporarily lose control of its body, allowing Shirou to pull it out of the water even further.

Screeching in clear anger, the creature attempted a bold counterattack, but yet another lightning bolt fired from Mjolnir disrupted its movement. It seemed Shirou had found a very effective way of dealing with the creature.

If this kept up, he might be able to actually kill this being before the night was over.

* * *

This wasn't going well. This wasn't going well at all. It was losing, actually well and truly losing, to a hairless monkey! Its preferred prey!

The Nokken, once so proud, confident and strong, had pretty much regressed into a thrashing mass of limbs, desperately trying to gain back control of the situation.

It would have been ashamed of itself under any normal circumstances. It was a born predator after all, meant to stand at the top of every food chain, the only exceptions being food chains with dragons or gods in them.

These were not normal circumstances however, and the Nokken was forgoing any shame at the moment in favour of pure, unadulterated panic and confusion.

Humans weren't supposed to produce fire; human weren't supposed to launch the white energy bolts that caused pain and paralysis; Humans weren't supposed to be able to pull its body out of the water and onto the shore through brute strength alone!

It had gone wrong from the very beginning, when the prey had neatly dodged its tentacles and then obliterated them with a single swing of the 'thing' in its hands. From there on, the human had constantly dominated the fight, keeping the Nokken completely off-balance as it destroyed more and more tentacles and even dealt great damage to the main body.

Even hiding under water had done the Nokken no good, as the human had actually started boiling the water in an effort to force the creature to the surface. At that moment, the best option for the Nokken would have been to flee at once, but it had never needed to flee before, it had never feared anything before, and in its shock and confusion, it didn't even remember fleeing was even an option.

Then, while it was flailing around, unsure of what to do, the human had leapt forward, seized a limb, and started pulling it out of the water.

That was the position the Nokken currently found itself it. In pain, panicked, and coming ever closer towards dry land, where its foe could finish it off with ease.

It should have propelled itself right the other way, towards deeper water, hopefully taking the human with it in order to drown it, but the Beast's inexperience showed itself again, as it allowed itself to be pulled ashore while it did nothing but trash around, wasting precious energy.

Even worse, just when the Nokken started to gather its wits around it again, a bolt of white energy hit it again, paralysing and confusing it further, making sure it could not stop the human from pulling it to dry land.

If this continued, the Nokken would die, that was certain.

Even the beast's telepathic abilities seemed useless. It had tried exerting its influence from the very beginning of the fight, hoping to hook some mental claws into the foe's psyche in order to take control. It didn't bother with images, it just rammed on the enemy's mind with everything it had. It didn't work at all. There was an impenetrable wall around the human's mind, impossible to break through or slip past.

With that option failing as well, the Nokken was truly at its wit's end, seeing no way out of the current situation. It seemed as if it would have to resign itself to its end, to die before it had reached three centuries of age.

That resignation actually happened to force some calm into the Beast, as its panic abated just enough for it to start thinking somewhat clearly again.

It knew that trying to escape by physical prowess was going to be difficult, if not impossible. Fortunately, brute force was not everything that it had at its disposal. It could get much more insidious than that. Though it could not exert any direct influence on the human's mind, it could still peek inside, to search for exactly that one image that would allow it to... _soften_ the human's mental resistance.

Found it.

The Nokken quickly called forth the image that it had seen, and almost immediately, the Nokken could feel its enemy losing focus. The yanking on its limbs finally stopped and the white-hot bursts of white energy ceased to come as well. The prey did not relinquish its hold on the tentacle, but its grip did ease just the tiniest bit.

Slowly, very slowly, so not to disturb the human, who was still gawking at its hallucination, the Nokken slid back into the water, keeping the image maintained as well as it could.

The Nokken then added a little extra, a spell known to its kind, that served purely to unbalance enemies. It did not understand how the spell worked, only that it did, and that was enough.

As expected, the human then released the Nokken, the tentacle slipping from a strengthless grip, as the prey was caught up in the spell.

The Nokken didn't hesitate. It immediately drew back all its tentacles in preparation for a devastating attack. It would have been wiser to flee of course, wounded as it was, but its pride had been stung, and the Nokken needed to obtain victory in order to salvage that pride.

The beast sent out three of its limbs once more, aimed straight for the prey's torso.

This time, it did not dodge.

The Beast's mouth pulled into a terrifying grin as the tentacles found their mark, and warm blood started flowing.

* * *

Shirou should have known something was wrong the moment he felt his mind being assailed by a foreign influence. It was very weak, barely more than a tap against his defences, but he should have known something was awry right then and there, that the creature in front of him had other powers besides just its brute strength.

But he hadn't been thinking clearly, all of his focus being on killing the Phantasmal Beast before it could escape into deeper waters, so when an image began to take shape in front of his eyes, Shirou did not see it until it was too late, and he was taken completely off guard by the sudden appearance of a very realistic-looking man, standing to his side, a small distance away.

Shirou wanted to tell him to flee at once, to not get involved in the fight, yet when he laid eyes on the person, those words were caught in his throat.

Before him stood someone Shirou had never expected to see again. Someone who he had dearly missed, who he wished to speak to again, yet who was not supposed to be in the land of the living.

The person he admired most.

" _Hello, Shirou"._

His father, Emiya Kiritsugu.

Shirou blinked, his arms slackening in surprise and Mjolnir falling to his side, his focus immediately shifting from the Beast to the ghostly apparition in front of him, the current fight all but forgotten to him, as he failed to notice the attack on his mind.

Shirou's mental defences were top-notch, but in the face of his respected and loved father, they faltered for the shortest of moments, which had been enough for the Nokken to inject its venom.

It wasn't enough for the Beast to control him, that simply wasn't possible, but enough to make him forget about certain 'inconvenient things', such as Phantasmal Beasts he had been in a dead-match with seconds prior. His father was _much_ more important after all.

"Dad?" Shirou asked, astounded at what he saw before him. "Dad, is that really you?"

Intellectually, Shirou already knew that this was not his father. He had seen the man die, he had been seated right beside him when he had breathed his last breath.

Nevertheless, his respect for Kiritsugu, his love for the man, as well as the Nokken's subtle influence were enough to make him overlook the impossibility of the situation.

"Dad." Shirou repeated, delight filling him at the sight of his old man. "You are really here! H-how though? How is this possible?"

For a moment it seemed Kiritsugu would not answer, before his face contorted in rage, and he spoke, his voice hollow, yet still accusing.

 _"Shirou!"_ He thundered, completely unlike the normally calm man. _"You worthless boy. You have failed me!"_

Shirou recoiled as if struck at the harsh words, but the apparition wasn't done. _"Why have you not yet saved Illya as I asked you to? Why do you linger on common criminals while your sister is being tortured by the Einzbern? You promised to save her, didn't you? Was that a lie? Do you intend to see her among the list of people you failed, DO YOU?"_

"I-I am working on it." Shirou sputtered, knowing that he had good reasons for his delay, yet unable to properly word them in the face of his father's anger. "I cannot attack the Einzbern now, it would do nothing-"

 _"NOTHING?!_ " The apparition bellowed, interrupting Shirou mid-sentence. _"Are you not strong enough already, boy? Have you not become a god, that needs not fear reprisal from anyone? You should have saved her already, yet all I hear are weak excuses from a pup too scared to follow his dreams."_

Shirou wanted to explain himself, he really did, but Kiritsugu didn't allow him to get a word in.

 _"You failed to save Illya and you failed to save Sakura too"._ His father continued, shocking Shirou with the mention of his oldest friend. _"You have all the power you need, yet you let them both suffer in the claws of those who would only use them and discard them on a whim. YOU ARE NOT WORTHY!"_

The last part was doubtlessly meant to completely break his confidence, but Shirou had stopped listening after Sakura had been mentioned.

This was obviously a berating for his failures, which meant it was logical that his failure to save Illya so far was thrown into his face, but as far as he knew, he hadn't failed Sakura.

She wasn't happy with her life at home, but she had never given him the impression that she wanted him to get her away from there. Zouken was an unpleasant man, but he wasn't a monster to the best of his knowledge. Besides, he couldn't imagine someone would deliberately harm someone as innocent and kind as Sakura.

On the other hand, Magi were an amoral bunch like that…

He turned back to his father, who was still yelling about his shortcomings, to demand an explanation, before a sudden agonising pain bloomed in his chest and stomach.

'SCHLEK!'

With a frankly disgusting sound, three tentacles suddenly pierced his torso. One through his right-lung, another through the stomach, and the last one slightly above his left-hip.

For a moment, Shirou was completely caught off guard, not understanding what had suddenly happened. He could only stare at the dark-blue limbs, blinking in surprise.

His understanding of the situation returned very quickly however, upon seeing the now-grinning visage of the Nokken appear before him once more, rising from the water, while his father slowly faded from view.

Then, Shirou remembered what he'd learned from the man he had saved a week ago.

 _"My wife." The older of the two spoke softly, a lone tear appearing in the corner of his eye. "I thought I saw my wife beckoning me to come with her. Even though that's impossible, since she, well, s-she, she passed away last year."_

He had fallen for the same ruse, perhaps even more so, and he had payed for it by being struck a critical blow by the beast as he'd lost his focus.

It had been a trick.

A _trick_.

His father, the man who had saved him, taken him in, given him a purpose, the one whose dream Shirou was trying to fulfil. That man just been copied, faked, besmirched, by that beast.

It had preyed upon people's loss and grief, and had done the same with Shirou, callously using his feelings to gain the upper hand in their fight. It had even used his sister in the attempt, having the fake Kiritsugu say things the real one would never have said.

It made Shirou feel angrier than he had ever been before. He was angry at the Nokken, for its sacrilege, and at himself, for falling for the trick so easily.

That anger quickly became rage, rage aimed at the Beast in front of him.

Shirou's rationality then slipped away just the tiniest bit, the coherence of his thoughts lowering by the smallest of margins, the slightest bit of _madness_ taking over his mind, ever so shortly. In exchange, his power increased exponentially.

While the mysterious power was normally calm and docile, it now wanted to rise to the surface, to smite whatever had roused Shirou's anger like that in an incredible display of fury worthy of the warriors of old.

Thunderclouds formed overhead, without Shirou needing to give a single sign. The wind picked up, the waves on the water increased in height, thunder rumbled at ear-piercing volume, and for a short moment, Shirou's eyes almost seemed electric blue.

Shirou grabbed Mjolnir from where he had dropped it, grabbed the tentacle that was currently stuck in his right-lung, and _pulled_.

Where before the Beast had been pulled towards him meter by meter, it was now torn straight from its position to land right in front of Shirou, the massive head now easily within striking range. Shirou promptly tore the tentacle that had been stuck in his right-lung out of his body, followed by the other two, leaving gaping holes. He didn't even feel the pain.

Immediately, Avalon and the mysterious force exerted their influence to heal him, yet Shirou payed no attention to this, as he raised his hammer high above him and called the lightning from the sky, roaring in anger as he did so, the Magic Circuits in his arm glowing bright green as they started channelling the mysterious power.

Lightning struck down from the sky, most of it striking directly all Mjolnir, yet some hitting the Beast, making it screech in surprise and agony as it started twitching madly. Shirou didn't let up for second, and took a step forwards, before bringing the hammer down with as much force and power as he could.

The Nokken's head was very big, much bigger than Shirou and certainly much bigger than Mjolnir, but size didn't seem to matter in that moment, as the blow from the divine weapon, combined with a final lightning bolt, utterly obliterated the ugly creature, splattering gore, blood and brain matter all around.

It was almost anticlimactic, as Shirou destroyed his enemy with a single blow from his trusty weapon.

The Beast was dead. It's threat was no more.

With his enemy vanquished, Shirou's rage abated. He had made the Beast pay for its sacrilege, and he had no other target for his anger.

With the abating rage however, came exhaustion, as Shirou was suddenly overcome by a feeling of vertigo, panting heavily with sweat dripping from his forehead. For a few moments, it was all he could do to prevent himself from falling over.

As soon as he gained full control over himself again, Shirou wisely retreated from the lake. Many Phantasmal Species tended to have incredible regeneration-abilities and he wasn't sure being obliterated would actually stop this creature, whatever it was.

After looking at it for several minutes and seeing nothing change however, Shirou dared to relax again. It looked like he had won the fight for real, with him standing relatively in one piece and his opponent now in multiple pieces.

He did have three holes in his body, but they were already significantly smaller than they had been before. It wouldn't take longer than half-an-hour before they were gone, with the mysterious power and Avalon working at full power to heal him.

It was almost cheat-like, though he was now starting to feel the effect of the wounds, now that he was no longer numbed by the rage.

The pain he could handle, that was nothing to him, but the pierced lung was definitely annoying, and he was quite sure some stomach acid had leaked onto his intestines. Nothing Avalon and the mysterious power couldn't handle, but it would probably add quite some time to the recovery-process.

Knowing he shouldn't aggravate his injuries more than he already had, Shirou walked over towards the nearest bench and sat down on it. With nothing better to do, he decided to reflect on the battle he'd just finished.

It had been the most difficult fight of his life, without a doubt, so there were probably some valuable lessons to be learned from it, even if he didn't quite remember anything past the moment he'd had his torso pieced until the moment he'd found the beast in pieces before him.

' _Speaking of being pierced_ _,'_ Shirou thought grumpily, as he prodded the hole in his chest, _'I'm never going to battle again without wearing my armour. I doubt the Beast could have gotten me this badly if I'd remembered to summon it before going to the lake.'_

For the entire battle, he had been wearing his Vigilante-apparel, meaning simple black clothes and a mask on his lower face, which, while unassuming and quite stealthy, had absolutely worthless durability and offered next to no defence against serious blows. The armour was much better for defence, but even the most durable armour in the world wouldn't help him if he forgot to put it on before the fight.

His next mistake was not noticing the obvious mental manipulation the Nokken was using against him. The tingle he had felt in his mind should have been an obvious sign if he'd payed attention to it.

His third mistake, and perhaps the largest of them all, was listening to the fake-Kiritsugu. He should have dismissed the image as the obvious apparition that it was and payed it no more mind, instead of listening to it like a fool. The real Kiritsugu was probably shaking his head in disappointment now, wherever he was.

Still, Shirou wouldn't have been half as ensnared as he'd been back there if it hadn't been for the words that the fake-Kiritsugu had uttered.

Shirou didn't know how the Beast had found out about Illya and Sakura, but he eventually chalked it up to a particular ability it possessed. Nothing to worry about now that it was dead, or at least, so he hoped.

The words themselves had honestly been much more off-putting.

He knew he was strong enough to save Illya. In fact, if he prepared himself well, with a good plan, plenty of Rune Stones, a lot of stored power and a good breakfast beforehand, it should be well within his capabilities to go retrieve Illya the very next day.

The problem was what came after. The Einzbern wouldn't let their most valuable possession remain out of their grasp for long, and he would be the prime suspect should she ever go missing. His house would be sieged until she was back in their hands.

No, saving Illya was possible, but keeping Illya would be a lot harder, so waiting was all he could do. He probably would become powerful enough in the future to confidently save Illya and afterwards keep her with him, but not yet.

Then there was Sakura, and the words the fake-Kiritsugu had spoken about her.

Shirou didn't know if the words were true or simply a deception, and if they were true, whether the Beast had seen evidence of that in his memories or if it had some kind of ability to automatically know things it needed to know.

For some reason, the word 'Intellect' came to mind at that.

Was Sakura abused at her home? Was that in any way obvious?

Ayako and Taiga hadn't mentioned anything of the sort, so it couldn't be too obvious, if it was true in the first place. On the other hand, he had to admit Zouken at least rubbed him completely the wrong way and it was common knowledge among their small family that Sakura was not happy at her home.

But she always smiled so serenely. Surely, someone who smiled like that couldn't be too unhappy? Besides, he couldn't fathom that Zouken would hurt his own granddaughter. What would be the use of that? Why would _anyone_ ever want to hurt someone as sweet and kind as Sakura?

Regardless of the truth, Shirou decided to make it a point the coming weeks, or months, or even years if needed, to carefully watch over her. Being unhappy at home was one thing, but if she was being tortured there…

But those were probably just the deceptive words of a Beast that wanted to eat him. Even if it had been correct concerning Illya, it didn't have to be when it came to Sakura, right?

The purple-haired girl played on his mind for a little while longer, her smile and gentle demeanour standing out even in Shirou's thoughts, until Mjolnir mentally nudged him, alerting him that his wounds had healed.

His jacket and shirt still had huge holes in them, but with some black thread and a bit of Alteration, that should be relatively easy to fix.

Rising from the bench, Shirou threw a look at the remains of the creature, before deciding that he should burn it all to ash. Who knows what it could do if it was allowed to fester and rot?

A quick 'Sowilo' later, Shirou was flying home, saying goodbye to Iwakuni, as it was time for him to move on to the next destination on his list.

Inuyama.

* * *

A tear slowly streaked over the woman's face, making its way downwards in an expression of her grief, shock and terribly conflicted nostalgia, accompanied by bittersweet memories she had tried to bury for years now.

Standing in her small apartment in Fuyuki-City, still clad in her working clothes, Yomaura had to struggle to not sink to her knees, her legs shaking as she sobbed, trying desperately to hold back her tears.

It was the burden that came with knowledge, and no matter how much she wanted it, she could not unlearn what she had just discovered.

She had finally found a plausible answer to a question that had bothered her for months now, but it had turned out to be a terrible conclusion, one that would completely upend the new life she had made for herself, yet one that only seemed to grow more likely the more she tried to disprove it in her mind.

She had reviewed the evidence a thousand times, trying to find any clue, any hint that her conclusion was wrong, that she simply wasn't looking at it objectively, but the more she looked, the more evidence in favour of that dreaded theory appeared instead.

Back when Rakurai had first been mentioned at the precinct, back when he hadn't even had a name, she'd had no inkling that the vigilante would have such a big impact on her life. When the cases he was involved in kept piling up however, she had reluctantly accepted he would play a big role in her working life for quite a while, at least until they caught him. It wasn't even that bad. He was breaking the law, that much was true, but at least he was cool and awesome while doing so, as well as contributing to society.

She had been able to keep him out of their private life successfully, mostly because they had made it a policy that Rakurai was supposed to remain a closely guarded secret, partially to not encourage possible copy-cats and partially so they could claim his accomplishments as their own. She had to admit the second one had left a bitter taste in her mouth.

Then the daughters of her colleague had actually found out about the vigilante's existence, entirely on their own. Not long after, the police had admitted his existence, and though it hadn't resulted in any headway in the investigation, it had in fact resulted in the one thing they'd wanted to avoid: Copy-cats.

Not a lot of them, thank Kami, but every one was one too many in her opinion. They had better things to do at law-enforcement than arrest idealistic people who tried to handle things that were far beyond their capability. At least Rakurai seemed to know what he was doing.

The vigilante himself had remained at large and nigh untraceable, no matter what they did. The evidence he left was minimal, if he even left any in the first place. Their few attempts at deducing who he was through elementary and extrapolation of data had also amounted to nothing in the end. They simply couldn't find the one that had been making waves in their town.

Eventually, when their town had been swept through thoroughly enough, Rakurai had moved on to other towns, further enhancing his mystery as more and more people began finding out about him and more and more question were raised about how he did what he did.

It had been quite clear every time that it had been Rakurai himself, not a copy-cat. The eyewitness-accounts described a similar person, and the method of operation was very alike too; Just like in Fuyiki-City, the vigilante had torn through the gangs and the criminals like they were dry leaves in a storm, entering hide-outs, kicking ass and taking names, and then leaving again without a trace.

Those had actually been the first clues to Yomaura that something was not as it seemed with the vigilante. No man, or even a group of men, should be able to actually do all of that. To travel so quickly between cities, to combat so many well-armed individuals, to somehow make things end up in their favour every time through some kind of divine interference, it hinted at something larger.

Because they were the ones in charge of the Rakurai-case, the superiors had ordered her and her partner Osaki to investigate the cities Rakurai had visited, that being Ise and Urayasu.

The visit to Ise hadn't yielded any results. According to the records of the local law-enforcement, Rakurai had strolled into town, taken down all criminals he could find, and had left barely a week later, a cleansed city left in his wake.

In Urayasu however, they'd stumbled on many clues, coming from many different sources.

Some of them came from criminals complaining loudly about being counter-ambushed. Apparently, that meant that they'd tried to ambush some 'punk with a mask' walking along the street, before said individual had suddenly displayed 'mad skills' and had taken them all down, to paraphrase the highly insulted criminals.

Another source was a woman who had professed that Rakurai had saved her from being raped. When pushed for more details however, the woman had apologised and explained she had been in too much distress to clearly remember what the vigilante looked like. She did mention he had stuck around for some time to ensure she was alright, so she could confirm the statements about his rather small size.

It hadn't been much, but Osaki and Yomaura had been happy with every bit of evidence and every clue they could get. Yomaura remembered saying she really hoped they would find plenty more clues after all of their hard work investigating the vigilante. She really regretted those words now, after having found the last clue the vigilante had left her.

When she had entered Urayasu for the first time, the first thing that had stood out to her was the feeling of death washing over her. It was something familiar to her, something that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise in discontentment, giving her a very good idea of what she might be dealing with. She had prayed she was mistaken but had been more than prepared in case she was not.

When she had tracked the source, alone, without her partner or anyone else even as much as knowing what she was doing, in case she was in fact correct in her assumption, she had found an abandoned factory or sorts, where the feeling of death was strongest.

Other than that however, there also seemed to be a sense of immense power in the air. It almost felt electrifying to Yomaura, and she idly had wondered what it could be.

After she had entered the factor and walked past the countless traps that had littered the halls and stairs, most of them already triggered, yet some of them still active, she came upon a room that had been completely devastated.

The door had been blown of its hinges, as if something had impacted it with great strength and speed. There were scorch marks everywhere, even on the stones, as if someone had been throwing napalm around during a fight. There were cracks and fissures in one of the walls, looking as if something human-sized yet very durable had hit it with a lot of force. Lastly, there was a pile of ash on the ground, right next to the broken wall. A pile of ash that, upon closer inspection, revealed precisely what kind of creature had lived here.

A Dead Apostle.

The thought of such a creature living in a place like Urayasu had made Yomaura want to snarl in discontent and anger, cursing the Church for their oversight. After her anger had ebbed away however, she realised what was wrong with the entire situation.

An Apostle had lived here, no doubt preying on the people of the city. It had lived here, until Rakurai had visited the town, which was right around the time that the many disappearances stopped...

Now, there was no decisive evidence that it had been Rakurai who had killed the Apostle, she knew that, but when also taking into account the seemingly impossible feats the vigilante had been pulling off left and right, she had to admit he very well could have.

That would mean that Rakurai... was a _Magus_!

…

That sudden thought had frozen her on the spot, a few steps outside of the abandoned factory, as her mind reeled in shock at her discovery. Denial was her first reaction.

No Magus worthy of their designation would ever spend night after night combating criminals in an effort to aid the police and people in distress for no other reason than to do the right thing, which was exactly what Rakurai seemed to be doing.

On the other hand, Rakurai being a Magus would explain how those officers in the precinct had ended up being hypnotised. If Rakurai had wanted something from the precinct in the past, it would stand to reason that he would hypnotise people in order to get it. But again, that would require him to be a Magus.

The traces of hypnosis on the men hadn't been apparent, and most Magi would have missed them, but Yomaura knew the signs of an altered mind better than anyone else in Fuyuki-City and surroundings. She had all of those signs memorised by the time she'd turned eleven after all, just like members of her family were supposed to do in order to protect themselves.

She hadn't been able to retrieve the memories or identify who had been behind the deed, actually, she hadn't even tried, instead purposefully looking the other way, not wanting anything to do with that world anymore. Looking back, that had been an incredibly foolish decision.

Furthermore, Rakurai being a Magus would also explain how he had been able to take down so many enemies on his own, and how he was able to short-circuit entire buildings through unknown means, as well as sneak up on people that were on high-alert.

The likelihood of Rakurai being a Magus was actually far higher than not.

All those thoughts had flashed through her mind at high speed, while Yomaura herself had still been frozen outside of the abandoned factory. She'd looked at it from every angle she could think of, but the conclusion remained the same.

Rakurai was a Magus, and thus she was once more involved with the Moonlit World.

The half-Irish woman had to force back a choked sob at the thought.

She had left that life behind! She had left that life, and her family, and her 'friends' and everything else behind, because she hadn't been able to bear it anymore to live there, among back-stabbers, family-members that would sell you out in a heart-beat, and cruel Lords that got everyone around them caught up in their useless games.

She had walked out of it, walked away from everything she had ever known, even her dear cousin, because she had deemed it the better choice. She still thought it was the best choice she could have made.

Yet it hurt. It still hurt beyond belief.

It hurt to think of her old life after having successfully forgotten about it for so long, because no matter how much she had hated it there, there were good memories as well, plenty of them, as well as the knowledge that some of her family members were probably missing her as much as she missed them. Even now.

Unable to live with that pain, she had done everything she could to forget about that previous life. A new name, a new history, a lot of courses and studies to make up for her lacking knowledge of the modern world and a new home. She had shut down her Magic Circuits and hadn't channelled a drop of Prana in years for God's sake.

She had even gotten a job at the local law-enforcement, like a normal person, in an effort to be of use to the city she now lived in.

Fuyuki-City. A rather nice place, if one forgot about the periodic slaughters taking place there. It was quiet, off the radar and the area was extremely sparsely populated when it came to Magi. All in all, an excellent place for someone like her to hide. It had almost been too easy to enter the city and build a new life there.

Yomaura was certain the Second Owner of the city was a nice girl, but she was kinda hopeless at watching over her domain really. She really shouldn't complain though, it had allowed her to make herself a home in the city, with her own apartment and her amazing new job.

That job even came with a great Senpai, who had allowed her to seamlessly integrate with his life, to the point where she'd become a role-model for his daughters, a role she had gladly accepted. She had been curious about their real mother at first, but after she'd been told the full story, she agreed with the Osakis that the woman was better off forgotten by all.

Yet now someone from her old life had appeared, completely out of nowhere, and was threatening to take it all away from her again.

Her Senpai would never relent on the vigilante, she knew that and had even encouraged that. They had thought Rakurai to be a relatively harmless boyscout-like type, who only wanted to help others, the kind they'd arrested plenty of times before.

They had been very wrong.

This was not an ordinary well-meaning citizen that wanted to do something to protect others. This was a cold-blooded Magus with an agenda, someone who wouldn't allow anyone to obstruct him. Rakurai would kill her Senpai in a heartbeat if the vigilante ever felt that the detective was getting too bothersome.

…

…She couldn't allow that to happen. _She couldn't._

Even if it meant embracing that what she had left behind years ago, she would not let Rakurai destroy everything she had built.

Perhaps he thought his magic would give him an advantage, perhaps he thought himself unassailable because of his unnatural abilities. Perhaps that was why he was so confidently strutting around, because no one could stop him anyway.

She would prove him wrong!

Even if no one else could, she would stop him if he acted against her or her new family.

Enough with the self-pity and enough with the tears. It was time for her to pull herself together and do something to preserve her new life.

She decided then and there, as her legs stopped shaking and she stood upright once more, that Rakurai would rue the day he attacked her family. She would make him fear her, she would make him dread her, before she would take him down.

Wiping away the tears she had cried for her families, both past and present, and giving a grim smile, Yomaura Taya, for that was who she was, for now and forever, raised her hand, and drew Runes in the air in front of her, for the first time in years utilising Prana, as she created a set of very specific Wards around her apartment. She would do the same for Koyo's home as soon as she could.

Let Rakurai come, let him try to attack either of their houses, and he would find that killing them would be significantly harder than he could ever expect.

For a Fraga, even a disgraced and disinherited one, would not be defeated so easily.

* * *

 **And there we are, chapter over and done, hope you all had fun reading this, thank you very much for your contribution by paying some attention to all these words.**

 **So, hope you all had fun, but now there is some business you MUST know:**

 **If you have something to say or something you absolutely must ask, please PM me. Questions in reviews tend to stay unanswered for quite a long while.**

 **Also, discord. Here's the link: discord . gg / YaZvJJj**

 **Don't forget to remove the spaces.**

 **Now the perks of joining the discord server are that you can directly chatting with us the writers and editors for this fic, ask questions and even submit ideas and omakes that we will read and consider adding to the story. We can't promise that everything you say will be added as some things might not coincide with our own devised plot points and ideas, but everything will surely be considered. Oh, and there are also some other channels that you will have to explore yourself. Don't forget to read the rules before posting anything and have fun.**

 **Joining is completely mandatory and not at all required. I'll do my best to make sure even the casual readers of this story miss nothing.**

 **And of course, there is crazylich79, who has taken a secretary-role for this story, keeping the records, answering some of the questions in the reviews and some other things. If you feel completely dissatisfied by an answer of his though, contact me. I can't guarantee my answer will be different, but at least you can say you put in a lot of effort to get the correct answer.**

 **Some credit to hollowichigo12, who has provided ideas.**

 **Now that all those things are out of the way, let's discuss the story itself.**

 **Zouken POV, nothing surprising there. Yes, I know Shinji raped Sakura of his own accord in canon, I explicitly state here however that in my story, he doesn't. His character is more morally correct here. Not a lot more correct, and he still can't handle power at all (give him a Servant and he will go just as crazy as in canon), but he is slightly better. I have a need of him later, as vessel for something akin to a Divine Spirit, so please don't hate him too much.**

 **The Nokken's POV is mostly to make you aware that there are some Phantasmal Beasts left on the world, of which the Nokken was one. They slumber a lot, only ever waking up to eat (us) before falling asleep again. This one however noticed a certain protagonist, so it left its home in Germany to come to Japan and eat this delicious morsel.**

 **Then we have Burgon hiring a mercenary. The old guy thinks he has done well, the mercenary doesn't quite agree, as we all saw.**

 **Big battle between Shirou and Nokken, with the Nokken cheating quite hard. Now, I know what you're going to ask; 'but Ted, how is it possible that the Nokken could influence Shirou?'**

 **To that, I say that directly altering or taking control over Shirou's mind was impossible for it, but reading the mind and memories, as well as sending certain feelings of calm and love over is certainly possible. Shirou's going to have to work hard on mental defences if he wants to prevent that. Well, that, or become more Asgardian, which will happen on its own.**

 **The Nokken also based all of its taunting on what it saw in Shirou's mind.**

 **For those of you wondering how the Beast knew that Sakura was also in trouble, the Nokken doesn't devise its taunts by itself, it has a kind of algorithm written in its lure that does the taunting. The Nokken wouldn't know anything about little sisters and fathers and stuff, so it has to rely on magic and very arcane crafts.**

 **This also means that the thing about Sakura was made up by that algorithm. It is completely true of course, but the algorithm didn't know that, it was only bluffing. It saw that Shirou suspected Sakura to be unhappy and took that to extremes.**

 **Who got the 'Intellect' reference by the way?**

 **Shirou becomes angry, very much so, after the Nokken pulls its trick with Kiritsugu. This will be a very rare occurrence. Shirou is not quick to anger, but in this case, it was the anger over the trick, anger over the Beast indirectly threatening his sister and crush, shock over almost dying for the first time since the fire and some other things that pushed him enough to enter the Berserk-state. Anyone ever heard of Warrior's Madness? If not, look it up. It is from Marvel and belongs originally to Thor.**

 **And we have Yomaura, who is a lot more than she seemed before.**

' **Why didn't Shirou notice her before?' Cause she was not doing anything with her Circuits for the entire time she's been in Fuyuki. This chapter was the first time in years she's done anything with her magic at all, so there was nothing for Shirou to notice.**

 **She truly cares for her new live by the way, and yes, she can in fact make things a lot more difficult for Shirou.**

 **A Fraga is far more dangerous an opponent than a dimwit Dead Apostle or an arrogant, young Phantasmal Beast that was out of its depth (pun unintended).**

 **More of her history will follow later.**

 **Ted is done. Goodbye and see you next time.**


	14. First Blood

**First blood**

"Shinji. What is going on in your house?"

It was a question Shirou would rather not have asked his tentative friend, but he had no other options left if he wanted to fulfill his self-imposed quest. Which was why he had cornered the boy in an alley while he had been walking home, going as far as to grab his shoulder to prevent him from getting away.

Ever since he had won the fight against the Phantasmal Beast in Iwakuni, he had been paying much closer attention to Sakura. The Kiritsugu he had spoken with had been naught but an illusion, and the words it had spoken most likely nothing but lies, but Shirou couldn't help but worry nonetheless.

He hadn't brought it up with Sakura herself yet, and was unsure when, or even if he would, but he had been investigating a little, trying to seem as inconspicuous as possible, in order to get a better picture of the Matou-household as a whole.

From what he could see, Sakura and Shinji were definitely being neglected at home, but neither seemed to suffer too much under it. Sakura was always serene and kind to everyone, while Shinji, though not the nicest guy around, was still dependable to a degree. Both were damaged by Zouken, but not so badly that they wouldn't recover after leaving home when they got of age.

If anything truly reprehensible was taking place in the Matou-household, then it was buried deep, somewhere it couldn't be found, at least not without him taking harsh measures, like breaking open the entire estate or something.

Additionally, he still couldn't think of a concrete reason as to why Zouken would abuse his grandchildren in the first place. The old man was a Magus, he shouldn't be doing such things when there was no gain in it, that was a waste of time and energy for him, and if there was anything Magi despised, it was wastes of time and energy.

Maybe the Phantasmal Beast had been wrong?

 _No_ , just because he couldn't fathom it, didn't guarantee it wasn't happening. Magi were unpredictable bastards at best, and Zouken certainly wasn't anywhere close to being 'best'.

At his wit's end, Shirou had eventually opted for a harder approach, which had led to the current situation of him interrogating Shinji, who was looking quite confused by now.

"Eh? What the hell do you mean, Emiya?"

The question was asked indignantly, but there was a noticeable undercurrent of nervousness, panic and perhaps guilt…?

"Sorry for confronting you so suddenly, Shinji, but I wanted to know if everything is fine at your house, with Sakura and you I mean."

Now understanding dawned, but with understanding came both rage and more panic.

"Of course it is." Shinji hissed, though he became noticeably paler. "G-Grandfather might not be the kindest person around, but we g-get by… W-Why am I-I even explaining this to you? Mind your own business!"

Shirou held up his hands in a gesture of peace. He had expected some kind of angry reaction, but this was worse than he had foreseen.

"It's just that you both seem distinctively unhappy whenever you must go home." He continued nevertheless, knowing he had to find out the truth some way. "So we were concerned something was amiss. Your grandfather doesn't look very... kind, you know?"

"We?" Shinji narrowed his eyes, before shaking his head. "Never mind, I can take a guess. Well, let me set you all at ease, Emiya. Grandfather has never laid a hand on either of us, and if you're as smart as I always thought you were, you will stay out of this."

The words were spoken with anger, but there was also worry in there. Not for himself, an one might expect, but for Shirou. Shinji was actually worried for him, concerned about what Zouken might do when he realised Shirou was trying to meddle.

Shirou had to suppress a smile at the realisation, knowing that smiling would only set the other teen off again. Nevertheless, it was good to know Shinji cared.

He also seemed honest enough when he claimed Zouken had never laid a hand on either of them. That was a big relief.

"Sakura and I will just have to last until he kicks the bucket." Shinji continued, almost spitting out the words. "After that, we're getting out of that place, so don't you worry Emiya, there is absolutely no need for you to play hero, not with us."

Shinji then knocked Shirou's hand off his shoulder, freeing himself, before rapidly walking away. Shirou watched him go, feeling relieved at his friend's words.

Situations weren't good at the Matou-household, but they also didn't seem to be as dire as the Beast had made it seem. If what Shinji said was true, than Sakura wasn't in need of immediate rescue at least.

But Shirou still wasn't sure. Zouken just gave him the creeps like nothing else he had ever seen. Even the Beast and Apostle hadn't felt as wrong as the old Magus, and those two hadn't had his friends in their official custody.

Shirou sighed, resolving to wait just a bit longer. Shinji was right that they were legally allowed to leave once they reached maturity, and if Zouken dared to deny them that, then Shirou would have the cause he needed to deal with the man and get Sakura out.

Returning home after watching Shinji disappear from sight, Shirou immediately went to the kitchen. It had been a long day, and he had hungry guests coming over, so dinner needed to be ready soon.

Not even ten minutes later, the first hungry guest already arrived, though surprisingly, it wasn't Sakura, but Taiga, who apparently had finished her work early. Sakura herself didn't show up until dinner had already started, looking far more subdued than she normally did, refusing to meet his gaze.

Shirou also knew why. Shinji was not known for his ability to keep a secret, so he probably had told Sakura of the conversation he'd had with Shirou immediately after coming home, which was precisely what he had wanted to avoid.

Shirou wasn't sure whether she was worried, insulted or indignant as a result of his actions, but whichever it was, she was now avoiding his eyes as much as she could and refused to talk to him for longer than a single sentence.

He better set it right immediately, he decided as he put the last of the dishes on the table.

"Excuse us, Fuji-nee, we have something to discuss and work out." He said to Taiga when she began eating, before lifting Sakura in a bridal carry. "Please give us a few minutes, we'll be right back."

Ignoring Sakura's squeaked protests, he quickly carried her to his room, where he put her down again, not commenting on her suddenly very red face. He then shut the door behind him, before turning back again.

"I suppose we should get this over with." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, somewhat regretting going to Shinji for answers now, before blinking in surprise at he looked at Sakura again.

She was even redder than before, looking at him with wide, disbelieving eyes, her hands pressed over her mouth, her body shaking madly.

"S-S-Senpai!" She squeaked, removing her hands from her mouth and waving them rapidly by her sides. "W-We can't j-j-just d-do t-that! W-What ab-about A-Ayako-san? W-We a-a-are t-too young."

"I think Ayako would completely agree." Shirou told her sternly. "In fact, were she here, she would undoubtedly join me right away, and we are both old enough this."

Sakura's face somehow got even redder, but Shirou didn't see that, as he bowed in a clear apology.

"Sakura, I apologise for violating your privacy and asking Shinji about your home-life instead of asking you. It was very improper of me to talk about you behind your back. Nevertheless, I must insist on getting answers now. Is your grandfather abusing you?"

She momentarily appeared completely confused by his words, before realisation hit her.

"O-oh, s-so that's what you meant. I-I thought…" She whispered, still blushing madly, before she shook it off, her voice becoming monotone as she spoke up again. "Grandfather has not laid a hand on either of us. Thank you for worrying, but there's no need to, Senpai."

Shirou didn't believe her. Her declaration sounded far too rehashed.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

"Yes, Senpai." Sakura professed, pressing her hands against her chest as she leaned forward. "I am completely sure."

Shirou couldn't help but lift an eyebrow in clear doubt, which prompted Sakura to continue, her voice taking on a frantic tone.

"I mean it, Senpai. Y-You don't have to worry about us, Nii-san and I are getting by just fine, honestly…"

"Sakura." Shirou interrupted. "You know you can just tell me when you need help? I won't judge you for anything…"

"SHIROU!" Sakura suddenly yelled at the top of her voice, silencing him more effectively than if she'd actually hit him. "There is no need for you to do anything! We are fine at home! Please leave it be. Grandfather doesn't want others interfering into our lives. Please, LET! IT! GO!"

Shirou was astonished, and really, why wouldn't he be? This was literally the first time he had ever heard Sakura raise her voice, not to mention she had called him by his given name, which she hadn't done in years.

He had messed up again, hadn't he? Just like with Shinji. Now Sakura was openly crying, tears streaming over her cheeks as she desperately whispered apologies to him.

He couldn't bear to see her so sad. He didn't want anyone around him to cry. He'd made it his life-mission prevent that, but now his oldest friend has been brought to tears by _him,_ by _his_ actions. It hurt him more than the making of nerve-Circuits ever had.

He didn't know what to do, but, not seeing any better option, he went with his first instinct.

He wordlessly took a step forwards and embraced her softly, taking her in his arms. Feeling her tense up for a moment, he feared he had made a mistake by hugging her, but then she relaxed again, snuggling up against his chest.

They stood like that for a minute, content in each other's presence, and Shirou swore that if Taiga would barge in now to interrupt them and ruin the moment, he would bodily throw her out of the house.

"I am sorry." Shirou eventually began, slightly loosening his hold on her. "I should not have interfered in family matters like I did, but I was worried. Zouken feels… wrong to me."

It was a weak reason, and he knew it, but it seemed to be enough for Sakura, who turned her head upwards and gave him a weak smile.

"Grandfather… isn't the best, but you don't have to get involved. Honestly." She whispered, looking extremely fragile yet also incredibly resolute at the same time. "We will manage, Senpai."

Shirou studied her for a moment, but the girl in his arms gave him such a serene and beautiful smile that he couldn't do anything but listen. So with reluctance, he let the matter drop, letting the Matou-siblings have their way, for now.

This was by no means over though. He would keep his distance from now on, but he would still be watching Zouken like a hawk. Any overt sign of abuse would not end well for the Worm.

Having reconciled and loosening their hold on each other after a little while longer, Shirou and Sakura went back to the breakfast table, though Sakura kept a firm hold of his hand the entire way.

When they got back to the dining room, instead of the expected teasing, they got a suspicious stare from Taiga, whose eyes immediately locked onto the tear trails on Sakura's face before they turned accusing towards Shirou.

She didn't say anything, no doubt assuaged by the blinding smile Sakura wore, but Shirou knew that matter was nowhere near over either. He would probably have to explain himself soon.

As they ate breakfast, Sakura once more in a good mood, Shirou happily played along, but in his mind, he was already making plans. He was by no means through investigating Zouken, he would just have to be more careful and subtle about it.

And he still had to visit Inuyama too this night, and for the coming nights as well.

His schedule sure was getting rather full.

Here's to hoping everything would go well there.

* * *

Shirou smiled.

So far, everything was indeed going well in Inuyama. It was a lot like Ise, with gangs gathered together nice and easy in abandoned buildings, easy to spot and easy to take down. The police in the city had fast response times and a serious attitude too, meaning he could leave everything in their hands after he was done.

He hadn't found any clues relating to the Magi so far, but neither were there traces of Dead Apostles or Phantasmal Beasts around, so it was okay. He might have been able to defeat those creatures, but he'd rather not experience fights like that in every city he visited. Finding two mystical beings in the span of a month was more than enough to fill his quota.

Still, even though it all went rather well so far, Shirou was quite sure at least something weird was going on. Not supernatural-weird, but more normal-weird.

The people in the run-down districts, where the majority of his targets were located, were clearly very afraid of something, if their skittish behaviour and absolute refusal to step outside after dark were any indication.

The police never moved unless in groups of at least four men, preferably more, always armed and always watchful. They were also unusually fast in calling reinforcements for every problem they encountered.

Then there were the criminals of Inuyama...

Previously, in the other cities, criminals would often voluntarily tell him everything he wanted to know in an effort to save their own hides, with a few exceptions that were easily solved with a bit of hypnosis. In this city however, none of the criminals would say anything, stubbornly refusing to utter as much as a curse towards him, unless he hypnotised them.

On itself, their silence didn't seem all that special, if it wasn't so clear to him that it was not because of loyalty or defiance, but rather because of fear. From their expressions, Shirou could conclude easily enough that they were afraid of something, probably their leaders and bosses, far more than they were afraid of him.

It concerned him that something out there was apparently so scary that even the most cowardly of criminals would rather face his wrath than betray whoever they were so afraid of. It would take some serious dedication to build a reputation like that, and most likely plenty of violence and cruelty.

He didn't like that one bit, and Shirou resolved to find these- he'd just call them leaders- leaders as soon as possible.

So after another infiltration of another abandoned building, after taking down another gang, Shirou held one of the more important looking members by his throat, lifting him into the air in a display of strength that was meant to intimidate.

"Where are your leaders?" Shirou asked him in a low voice, which, combined with his mask, made him seem a lot older and scarier than he actually was. "What are their names?"

The man, while clearly terrified of Shirou, merely shook his head in response. No matter how afraid he was of Rakurai, he was still far more scared of whoever had hired him.

Shirou had expected as much though, and lowered the man to eye-height again, before making eye-contact with him and bringing him under his thrall.

" **I'll ask you again. Where are your leaders?"** He repeated, his voice laced with Prana, deep and reverberating.

This time, the man answered.

"T-They are holed up, at the docks." He choked out, prompting Shirou to loosen his hold slightly in order to let him breathe. "Don't know their names, don't think anyone knows their real names."

" **What are they doing at the docks?"** Shirou continued, letting the man down now. He had heard the docks being mentioned before while he had been eavesdropping, but he thought they just did some smuggling on the side. If the leaders were all there though, he might have to pay a visit to that place soon.

"Don't know." The man coughed. "They never told us what they're doing there. They only ever ordered us to take the attention of the police off of them and to never mention them if we didn't want to get killed."

" **Have you ever spoken with them? Or seen them at least?"** Shirou pressed. The man's face took on a thoughtful expression at the question, before he snapped his fingers in realisation.

"Yes, yes I have. I saw one of them once." He told Shirou, looking almost too happy at his own usefulness. "I believe it was the big boss even. Let me tell you, that guy is _scary_. He has this demon mask on, like, permanently, and he acts every bit the part of his disguise. His voice too, man, his _voice_. It's cold, inhuman even. He's not a man you want to mess with, that's for sure."

Shirou gave a curt nod at the information, storing it away for future use, before preparing to knock out the man with a quick blow to the forehead. It would be a bit strange after all if he was the only one without any wounds in the entire building.

Before he could strike however, the man continued talking, the hopeful tone in his voice and expectant glint in his eyes momentarily stopping Shirou cold.

"You're going after the bastard and his flunkies, aren't you?" He asked, grinning widely. "I hope you'll kill 'em dead. They killed far too many of my buddies, they deserve every bit of pain you're gonna bring them."

Shirou took a moment to contemplate this, before he gave a curt nod and swung his fist.

Once more phone call to the police later, he was out of there and on to the next part of his mission.

He now had a lead to the big shots in town. If anyone here had any information about the Magi, it'd most likely be them. Not to mention that these guys seemed really bad, even for criminals.

Unfortunately, storming the docks right now would do nothing but make them go into hiding. The docks occupied a very large surface along the coast and further inland too, holding hundreds, if not thousands of buildings of all kinds, making it a veritable maze.

Shirou wouldn't be surprised if many of those buildings went on underground as well, further enlarging the size of the area he would have to search.

No, if he wanted to get this right, he would have to be subtle first, gather information, make a plan. Then, when he was as prepared as could be, he would barge in and hopefully take out all the leaders and collapse Inuyama's entire underworld in one fell swoop.

Now, one didn't get a reputation like those leaders from remaining in hiding all the time, so it was likely that they appeared in public every so often, if only to make some grand gesture to reestablish dominance over their gangs. As such, there should be plenty of gang-members around that had at least a bit of information about their superiors.

He should sniff around for a bit, see if there was anyone who could help him.

It was a good bit of reasoning from Shirou, and it paid off quite nicely, as by the end of the night, he had managed to gather that there were no less than eleven big leaders in total, ruling of Inuyama's underworld. One of them, the one with the demon-mask, going by the name of 'Oni', was the leader, the other ten were more of his lieutenants.

Shirou wanted to pursue them immediately, but the dawn forced him to retreat, as he had to be present at home lest he worry Sakura, who would come by early again in order to help him with the household chores.

Still, even if it might have been a bit inconvenient now, he could only look upon those visits with fondness. Sakura came over to his house every day, and he truly appreciated that. She was an amazing friend and he would always be happy to have her in his home.

Even more so now that he had almost lost her. The fact that she could just as well have walked away after realising he had been going behind her back was truly terrible to contemplate. To think that he had almost ruined their friendship... it was terrible.

So he now appreciated her coming more than ever, simply happy that she still wanted to be his friend.

She was, after all, an amazing person.

* * *

Many people would be quick to describe Matou Shinji as a rash individual, who never thought things through, and they would be right, to an extent.

Those same people would be astonished to find him so deep in thought as he was at that moment.

He had been thinking things over more and more recently, reflecting on his life in ways he had never done before.

He had always muddled through life as best as his incompetent self could, talking a big game but ultimately not contributing much to anything. He had been content with that for the past years, but suddenly, he wasn't anymore.

He knew that if people looked back on the things he had done, they would find him wanting. He was not as impressive as he had always pretended to be. He was worthless and he knew it, though he always talked big as if that would change anything.

There were plenty of little things he had done in his life, such as leading a few girls on, mocking the hard work of others behind their back and generally boast about himself too much. If it was limited to that though, he would just be an asshole.

The biggest misdeed of them all however, the one thing he truly deserved to be damned to hell for, was what he had been doing, and was still doing, to his adopted little sister.

When Sakura had entered his life, he had at first warmly accepted her. He could remember the afternoons he spend with her, playing every game they could think of, consoling her about her family not wanting to talk to her anymore, and telling her every story he knew, all with Shinji's father watching them with a smile.

True, he had teased her and acted big in front of her, but he could remember she had never minded it when he did that. It was what you'd expect a foolish boy like him to do.

It had all changed however, when he had discovered the girl's purpose in the household. She was to become the heir of the Matou, a role that had always been denied to him. Upon this discovery, he had confronted his father about it. Shinji didn't know what he had expected from the man, but certainly not that he would turn his head away, claiming that he had no more time for a failure when there was an actual heir to be trained.

Shinji was ashamed to admit he had hated Sakura at that moment, and had subsequently refused to speak with her again, to even acknowledge her, to her obvious hurt and confusion.

That hatred had lasted until the moment when Zouken had told him of her first training in the pit, that terrible pit that had claimed his mother, when she had screamed for three days and nights before falling silent, utterly spend and nigh-broken. Most of the hate had disappeared very quickly after that.

After Zouken had discarded her on the ground after the first training he had been present for, he had wrapped her up in a blanket and gotten her to bed. Unsure of what to do however, he had left right after. A cowardly act that still left a bad taste in his mouth.

Still, she had thanked him, professed gratitude that he hadn't abandoned her. What a joke!

That bad taste turned to ash and fire when he had gotten the order to rape her, an order given by the creature that was masquerading as their grandfather. That was the moment that the thing ceased to be human in his eyes. He didn't have a grandfather and neither did Sakura. They merely had a jailer and torturer.

Why had he ever wanted to become a Magus anyway? His sister was suffering, his mother had been executed, his uncle died in a glorified slaughter, his 'father' had been a blasted coward and his grandfather was some _thing_ living in a wormpit. What about that life had beckoned him so much exactly?

He had seen Sakura waste away in the household as a result of being the heir, while he stood on the sidelines, wallowing in guilt yet too cowardly to act, fearful of angering Zouken.

Which was why Emiya had been such a blessing, both for Sakura and Shinji. He was the only reason Sakura was still holding on after all. He was, for all intents and purposes, her guiding light.

Emiya was doing what Shinji should have done all along, but was too scared to, and Shinji resented and appreciated him for it in equal measure.

Strange really, how he had such conflicting emotions about everyone he was close with.

Except Zouken, that man he just hated.

Oh, and his father, but who cared about that guy, really?

Emiya had been an great source of support and love for Sakura and could be even more if he got his head out of his ass and saw just how much Sakura adored him, but Shinji knew very well that she couldn't get too close to Emiya. That guy wanted to become a hero, he said as much whenever he was asked for his ambition and plans in life.

He would never accept the situation as it was now, he would immediately move to try and help him and Sakura, only to die for it. It was imperative that Emiya be kept as far away as possible from their residence, as he couldn't fight a Magus and hope to survive.

Which was why he had nearly gotten an aneurysm when Emiya had suddenly approached him with questions about Zouken. He wasn't supposed to ask that. Should that thing find out…

So he had bluntly dismissed Emiya's concern, sending the guy away with an order to stay out of it. He also told Sakura of the sudden inquiries, confident that the plum-haired girl would be able to turn Emiya away far more effectively than he ever could. Some might have worried about their friendship, but Shinji knew it was strong enough to endure this. easily.

A bit strange Mitsuzuri had suddenly come along to question him as well, though mostly about Emiya, but that was hardly important.

In the end, Emiya didn't belong in the Moonlit World. He was a guy that wore his heart on his sleeve, who wanted nothing more than to help people and look damn attractive while doing so. No wonder Mitsuzuri was so quick to fall for him. Not that he expected Tohsaka to last all that long either.

Really, who did Emiya think he was?

A goddamn hero or something?

* * *

In all honesty, Shirou hadn't expected the leaders of Inuyama's underworld to be very competent. He was wrong.

Though many criminals throughout the city had met at least one of those leaders on several occasions, none of them could tell him where their bosses were hiding, or what they did on an average day besides the generic extorting shopkeepers and smuggling drugs. It was honestly a bit strange that it was all so secret. What purpose could it serve to keep their underlings, even the higher-ranked ones, in the dark to such a level?

Was it simply a matter of not wanting to share profits, or were they doing something so dark and vile that even the average criminal wouldn't stand for it?

Shirou hoped it wasn't the latter, but considering how his missions had gone up until now, he feared it was exactly that.

He hadn't foraged into the docks yet, not wanting to spook the criminals present there before he could take them all down in one blow. Now he feared he no longer had much of a choice.

Which was why he was currently standing on top of one of the buildings deep into the docks, barely a hundred metres away from the sea. Standing here, it was once more made clear just how big the docks truly were, and how much of a disadvantage that was for a lone hero-in-training attempting to find eleven people without anything to distinguish them by.

Even now, in the middle of the night, countless dockworkers were still scurrying around, trying to complete their jobs within their shift, most of them uninvolved in anything illegal, and he wanted to find those aforementioned eleven people without any information or any leads?

Not a chance.

Annoying, but not an insurmountable obstacle. As his father had said, if you can't tackle the entire problem at once, chop it into little pieces that you can handle, before returning to the big picture.

If the stooges he caught every night couldn't lead him towards the leaders, then perhaps he instead needed to ask him about people who could.

The people he caught were the lowest of the low, simply mooks, who knew nothing. What they did probably know however was the identity of the gang-members one rank above them. Those small bosses probably also knew who the person one rank above them was, and those bosses in turn knew who their direct superiors were.

He would continue like that, until he had climbed the ladder all the way towards Oni himself.

After all, if these bosses where as effective and feared as he'd been led to believe, then they needed to be very active, which meant there had to be a trail he could follow. People who had to organise everything, people that passed on messages, people that were responsible for the finances.

No big organisation could exist without paperwork after all.

* * *

Everyone was acting weird around her and she didn't like it one tiny bit.

Ayako was not someone who was used to being left out of the loop on things. She was not someone who let things simmer until they blew up.

She was more of a confrontational kind of girl, which had served her pretty well in solving issues, getting over disagreements and obtaining juicy gossip and information.

Granted, sometimes it backfired, when someone was a little too forthcoming and too bold even for her, or when someone took offense at her words, leading to an argument, but in general, she liked her own attitude.

Which made it very vexing for the brunette to have her favourite people in the world act so secretive! They wouldn't even tell _her_ what was wrong. She would have understood if they acted like that to strangers, but to their very own Ayako-chan? Ridiculous.

It all started with Shirou, who had been acting more and more distracted lately. The change was subtle, and she would have missed it completely had she not gotten to know him very well over the last months, but Shirou was... tense, more than he had ever been.

He had eventually confided in her (just her!) that the root of his problems was the Matou-household, and Matou Zouken in particular.

He had been going around, trying to find out if his distrust was justified or merely a product of paranoia. Needless to say, Ayako had immediately requested to be informed of everything he found, to which he readily agreed, though he had yet to come back with anything.

Later, she had stumbled upon Shinji, who had grumbled to himself about being questioned by stupid red-haired hero-wannabes while walking home.

There was only one person who fit that description and could irritate Shinji like that, so naturally, she had decided to question him too.

" _What did Shirou do?" Ayako asked Shinji, who was momentarily caught off guard by her sudden appearance, before he scoffed, a half-amused, half-pained look coming to his face._

" _It's none of your business." He huffed, gritting his jaw and trying to turn away. Upon receiving Ayako's patented glare however, he froze. "Fine. He was poking his nose where it doesn't belong and I told him off. Happy now?"_

" _Was that everything that happened?" Ayako nevertheless continued, feeling that wasn't the whole story._

"… _No." He admitted after a moment or two. "I might have also told Sakura about what transpired between Emiya and me. What she is going to do with that information is really none of my business though. Now get out of my way."_

 _With a shove, he made his way past Ayako, walking away brusquely._

Sakura hadn't told her anything, and neither had Shirou.

That couldn't stand. They couldn't just keep her out of important things like this. They weren't supposed to keep things from their girlfrien-from their friend!

Filled with righteous indignation, Ayako angrily made her way towards Emiya-estate in order to confront them.

Reaching the house, she kicked in the door, before stomping over to the dining room. It was found easily enough, this was after all not the first time she had been here. Or the second, or even tenth time.

Walking into the room, she found three pair of eyes looking at her in surprise and shock.

"You two." She said sternly, pointing at Sakura and Shirou, who automatically pointed to themselves in question. "Yes, you. With me. Now!"

Not even waiting for an answer, she marched up towards them, giving a short apologetic look towards Fujimura-Sensei, who wasn't even looking all that surprised, before she grabbed both of her love- _friends_ by their upper arms and pulled them along.

"The mornings here aren't quite what they once were." She heard Fujimura-Sensei idly comment back in the dining room.

Almost throwing them into Shirou's room, Ayako resolutely closed the door behind her, turning around to see Shirou and Sakura stand there, the boy looking like he didn't have a clue as to why they were there while Sakura was completely red.

That look almost caused another blush to come to Ayako's face, before she pushed it down. _Not what I am here for, yet._

By the way, she still hadn't decided if she wanted to share, so Sakura shouldn't get ahead of herself. They were only standing in Shirou's bedroom because they needed to talk, not because of… certain other reasons.

Maybe later.

"What is going on?" Ayako bluntly began. "I suddenly hear from Shinji that Shirou interrogated him about the situation at his house. You didn't tell me you were going to do that."

Shirou flinched slightly at the accusation, but the brunette didn't give him any time to explain himself.

"And then Shinji tells me he passed that on to Sakura, who also made no mention of it to me, at all." She continued, looking on as Sakura flinched as well. "And now you stand here, looking as if everything is perfectly fine. I don't like having things kept quiet from me. What is going on?"

Now, Ayako was very well aware that it could be absolutely none of her business, but that didn't stop her from being concerned. Both for her friends, who were apparently dealing with a lot of difficult stuff, and for herself, that she was left out and would perhaps be left behind.

"Nothing is going on between us anymore, Ayako." Shirou then spoke up, sounding as calm as ever. "I admit that I did speak with Shinji and later Sakura, but it was just a misunderstanding on my part."

"I-Indeed." Sakura perked up. "Nii-san told me about Senpai asking about our family-situation, but nothing is wrong at our house, really, so I told Senpai he shouldn't worry. Everything is fine."

Ayako bit her lip at Sakura's words, slightly turning her head to look at Shirou, who, standing behind Sakura and thus out of her sight, very lightly shook his head, as if to tell her everything was decidedly _not_ as perfect as the younger Matou-sibling made it out to be.

"And why wasn't I informed of anything earlier?" She demanded, deciding to take that up with Shirou later. "I could have helped."

"Indeed you could, and we're sorry." Shirou admitted. "It just didn't occur to me to come to you without proof of anything nefarious going on. After that, Shinji and Sakura both assured me everything was fine, so I didn't think it worth mentioning. Again, my deepest apologies."

Sakura pretty much said the same, alongside another three apologies. Ayako sighed deeply after the girl was done, before nodding in acceptance.

"Very well. I'll forgive you this time. Next time though, the first thing either of you will do is inform me as soon as possible. Understood?"

"Completely." Her friends chorused, before Sakura stepped forward and hugged Ayako tightly.

Since this was the first time Sakura had ever initiated a hug with her, Ayako could be forgiven for forgetting to hug back at first, though she quickly amended for that mistake.

She decided to ignore Sakura's mutterings about 'getting them both' for the sake of her sanity.

"Alright then." The brunette proclaimed after Sakura let go again, entirely too soon in Ayako's opinion. "I hope you have some food for me as well, because I didn't eat breakfast before coming here."

"I'm sure there is plenty for us all." Shirou said with a smile, opening the door again. "If Fuji-nee didn't eat everything already."

Fortunately, it wasn't so, as there was still plenty of food left once they got back to the dining room, where Fujimura-Sensei took one look at them, before shaking her head and continuing on with the story about a talking sponge and his pet snail, picking up where she'd left off when Ayako had entered.

When they left for their respective schools however, Ayako hung back slightly longer alongside Shirou, telling Sakura to go ahead as she had lost her calculator somewhere and needed to find it first.

Once they were alone however, she turned towards Shirou with only one word:

"Explain."

And so he did, telling her about his suspicions concerning the Matou-household, how Zouken simply felt completely off to him, how Shinji and Sakura clearly feared the man and how both had tried to dissuade him of looking into it any further.

After the whole tale, Ayako could only conclude one thing.

"They think Zouken is going to do something to you if you meddle too much, don't they?"

Shirou wordlessly nodded, frowning heavily, before giving an idle smile.

"Not that I am going to listen of course." He sighed, his smile falling away again to make place for another frown. "Even if they might never forgive me for it."

"That's not the correct way to think about it." Ayako countered. "Of course they will forgive you. You are their friend, and I don't think either of them even remotely loves or even just likes Zouken."

"True, but I am going against their explicit wishes here." Shirou responded, before he shook his head. "But this is hardly the time to discuss this. You should be off; Sakura is waiting for you."

Ayako's eyes widened as she realised he was right. She couldn't leave her friend hanging now, after promising to catch up.

"ExcusemeImustbeoff" She rattled, sprinting away at full speed, hearing Shirou's faint chuckles chasing her as she went.

A hectic morning to be sure, but it was good to know nothing was going on between those two that she wasn't involved in.

* * *

"I do not know where our leaders are, and I wouldn't know anyone who does either." The gang-boss told Shirou in an apologetic tone, looking downtrodden at his own lack of knowledge. "They like to keep things really close to the chest, you know, and I am no one important, so I get told nothing."

The man was yet another criminal that Shirou had hypnotised in his attempt to climb the ladder towards Oni. He'd actually made quite a bit of progress with that, as he'd managed to get a hold of some rather high-leveled gang-members, though that had required him to leave the slums of the city in favour of the richer parts. It turned out the people of importance didn't spend their nights out in abandoned buildings, but in comfortable apartments instead.

That was probably something he should have seen coming, but it mattered little right now. Abandoned warehouse or apartment on the tenth floor, either was no trouble to break into for Shirou, even if the latter was quite a new experience for him.

It was also in the apartments that he had actually managed to obtain some very valuable pieces of information about the clandestine business that Oni and his cronies were running. He was slowly gathering the pieces of the puzzle, and he should be able to complete the picture soon if he kept this up.

Apparently, the entire criminal underworld, from drug-dealing, assassinations, extortion and bribery to smuggling, organised theft, loan sharks and fraud, was under the complete control of Oni. Not only in Inuyama, but also much of the surrounding area.

The only thing keeping Oni from expanding his territory even further was an alliance of many other gangs, the Fujimura-clan chief among them, uniting to present a front against the man, who apparently shot no less than five underlings once he'd heard of said alliance.

Oni himself was barely involved in running his 'empire' though, preferring to stay in the shadows and letting his ten direct underlings deal with the tedious business, while he indulged in his own little corner of the underworld, though what that corner involved, no one had been able to tell him yet.

The few pieces that he did get were rumours that, whatever his business was, trucks had to be driven in from many surrounding towns, containing some kind of cargo, before that cargo was loaded onto ships headed for places like Shanghai, Singapore and many more far shadier ports.

"But," The man in front of him suddenly went on, looking as if a light had suddenly been turned on in his head. "If you really want to know, I have a friend, who has a friend, who swears that he knows the location of the next big drug-deal in the harbour. Don't know if he really knows, but if it's real, then one of the leaders is guaranteed to be present. They always are for such things."

 **"Really?"** Shirou asked in surprise, Prana still lacing his voice, getting a happy nod back from the man. **"Then what is the name of this friend of yours, and where can I find him?"**

The fact that the criminal happily gave him all the information he asked for, not even putting up a token resistance, was either an indication that Shirou's hypnosis was insanely good, or that this 'friend' wasn't as much a friend as the word itself suggested.

People under hypnosis were supposed to be reluctant to obey you, which resulted in having to literally spell out to them what you wanted done. In Shirou's case however, they happily volunteered the information, made sudden requests of him and generally were as helpful as they could be, without needing any prompting.

Strange, that.

Regardless, a lead was a lead, despite the impossible way he had obtained it, so he would follow the trail towards this 'friend' and then to the friend of this friend and then onward to Oni.

How complicated.

* * *

The information was correct. This friend of the friend indeed knew the location of some big drug-deal, where a supply would be brought in that was enough to provide the city's needs for the next six months. He had also known which leader was present.

Tora was this leader's alias, something that ticked Shirou off.

Naming himself after one of the most dangerous predators in the Mundane World was understandable, especially when his superior went for something like 'Oni' as nickname, but it was his bad luck that had him name himself after Shirou's big sister.

'Tora' would find himself waking up in police custody with an extra big headache before the night was over, just for this insult.

Petty? Maybe a little, but it wasn't like the man didn't deserve it.

Once more standing on a rooftop, Shirou watched impassively at the gathering of men below him. He had counted no less than sixty-five men standing down there, with many more standing watch in the nearby alleys and on rooftops.

Shirou's current rooftop had had two guys standing on it as well, but those had been put firmly under Shirou's hold through a liberal appliance hypnosis. Add to that the downpour of rain he had caused a short while ago and it was unlikely he would be spotted.

While they couldn't see anything in the rain, Shirou was able to spot the incoming trucks from miles away. They looked very generic, pretty much the same as any other truck you'd find on the highways of any civilised country.

Shirou was also pretty sure they had no business being here at this time of night, in a street that didn't seem to have any purpose except to look discrete and uninteresting.

It was nevertheless a rather clever plot. Even at night, hundreds, if not thousands of trucks would be arriving in the docks, either containing goods to be shipped off or being empty in order to pick up goods to bring elsewhere.

A few more trucks wouldn't draw any attention. They could easily drive into the docks, take a turn or three and then make their way straight over here without anyone ever suspecting foul play.

The trucks arrived at the meeting point soon enough, and every bit of doubt Shirou had about this being an illegal operation was discarded immediately upon sighting the enormous loads of white powder, pills and needles that were discharged after the hatches had been opened.

"Careful with those, you globs!" A voice suddenly shouted, cutting straight through the sound of the rain and the grunts of effort from the workers. "Just one of those truckloads is worth more than all of you earn together in ten years."

The man that was speaking had stepped out of a fancy car, immediately taking it upon himself to take charge of the operation. Even without that though, Shirou would have known who that man was.

The tiger mask was quite the give-away.

Having already spotted every watcher present at the location, Shirou rapidly jumped from rooftop to rooftop, knocking them out with precise punches, before doing the same to the watchers in the alleys, leaving the group of criminals without any look-outs.

He only had a few minutes now before someone would realise something was wrong, so he had to move fast.

Using the rain as a cover, he crossed the distance from the alley to the nearest truck unseen, sneaking towards the hatch, where four men were currently unloading the contents. He struck fast as lightning, and they went down without ever noticing him.

It went just as easily for the next three trucks, resulting in no less than sixteen men being down for the count already, without anyone having noticed him yet.

It was a bit underwhelming, especially if one had expected a large battle, but stealth truly was the better option here.

When he arrived at the fifth truck however, he made a mistake.

Once more, he counted four men unloading the contents, who were all promptly taken down before they could even process what was going on.

Shirou then focused his attention on the next truck, casting a quick look at his most important target. Tora and his men were still unaware of his presence, standing around doing stuff on their phones.

"This shouldn't take all that long." He breathed, before he heard the tell-tale click of a gun behind him.

"Indeed it won't, punk."

BANG

Shirou was already moving before his ambusher, an apparent fifth worker in the truck, had gotten the first syllable out of his mouth, Reinforcing his legs and jumping to the side, already out of the bullet's way before the trigger had been pulled.

The next second, a flat-palm strike to the side of the head had the ambusher down for the count as well.

"What was that? Globs, go check that out! The rest of you, with me! We are leaving."

Hearing the voice of Tora shout orders at his underlings, Shirou gave up on stealth, instead jumping at full speed out of the truck, seeing the remaining conscious criminals charging at him, while Tora and three others made their way over to the fancy car.

All criminals present were charging at him now, even the ones previously working on unloading the trucks abandoning their work in order to take down the intruder. The smarter ones of the coming horde didn't fail to notice the lack of people coming from the trucks Shirou had already visited and were able to deduce exactly why that was.

"Most likely a rival." One of them called, assuming the role of leader for now. "He is probably not the only one here, be on your guard and shoot that punk, right now."

The ones in front raised their guns in order to take aim, but before they could, their mysterious assailant seemed to _blur_.

The impromptu leader watched with open mouth as his entire frontline fell to the ground, either unconscious or worse. An entire row of men taken down without an assailant in sight. The only things he knew that could achieve such a thing were…

"They got snipers." He cried, cursing their watchers for their failure at paying attention. The only thing he could try to do now was try to get as many of them out of there as possible. "Everyone, take cover now."

Alas, his conflicting orders only created more chaos among his men, as they now had to worry about snipers, about being ordered to take cover, and also to shoot a punk that was nowhere in sight anymore.

In this hectic mess, Shirou had no trouble taking them all down, as many walked into each other, tripped over their own feet, ran away to hide behind slabs of concrete, spun in place looking for the snipers and generally didn't know what they were doing. No one even bothered with him anymore, except the impromptu leader, who was still screaming his throat hoarse while pointing at Shirou.

That screaming fell silent though once Shirou knocked the last of his men to the ground. Only then did the man start fumbling with his own gun, while Shirou sprinted up to him in order to take him down as well.

He would have preferred to interrogate this one, but Tora was both more important and about to get away, so he couldn't afford to lose the time. A punch to the gut sent the guy to dreamland.

Having dealt with his immediate opponents, Shirou _blurred_ again, daring to go even faster than before since none of the remaining four men were looking at him.

He caught up to them right before they could enter the car, and he could only thank the Root that they had placed it so far away from the trucks, or they might have managed to escape before he was done with the others.

"You won't get me that easily." Tora hissed upon sighting the masked face of the hated vigilante, who had been interfering in the business of far too many criminals for far too long. In one movement, with a quick look downwards, he pulled another gun from his belt, and aimed it straight at _Rakurai_...

Who wasn't standing in front of him anymore. Instead, Tora heard three bodies falling to the ground around him, before a fist smashed into his wrist, breaking it and making him cry out in pain, his gun forgotten on the ground.

The next moment, he was thrown backwards against his car, almost certainly spraining a muscle in his back, before he was grabbed at the throat.

As Tora gasped for breath, Shirou lifted him up at the throat. He then glared up at the criminal, before throwing him down on the ground again.

"So you are Tora." He said, pinning the man down with his boot. "I've got some questions for you and you are going to answer, if you please."

"Scum, I'll tell you where you can stuff your questions…"

" **I'll say it again. I've got some questions, and you are going to answer."** Shirou interrupted. **"Where are your headquarters? What do you know about the other nine leaders? What do you know about Oni?"**

Shirou had half-expected for Oni to not have a headquarters, as that would be rather vulnerable, but it turned out he was wrong, as Tora rattled off an address that Shirou knew to be located north in the docks.

"Oni is there most of the time." Tora continued. "Except when he has to deal with something really important. The others are usually on the move, never staying in one place for long, except when we're at home."

" **You know all of your co-workers, even when not on the job?"** Shirou asked. If that was so, he could just leave Tora behind with an order to tell everything to the police and go to deal with Oni right away.

"Of course." Tora huffed, looking affronted that Shirou had ever thought any different. "They are my friends, why wouldn't I know where they live and who they are."

" **Well, I don't think I have the time to find and deal with them all."** Shirou mused out loud. **"So why don't you stay here and wait for the police. Once they arrive, tell them everything you know, including all information about your friends, but nothing about Oni. He might have information I need, so leave him to me."**

Tora nodded obediently, prompting Shirou to knock him out, adding some extra force to punish him for slighting Taiga. After that, he pulled out a burner phone to call the police. At first, they thought him a prank caller, but after some time, the other end switched to someone who apparently already knew him from some other time had called.

After the call ended, Shirou jumped back onto the nearby rooftop and began bringing the unconscious look-outs down, laying them besides their colleagues, to make it easier for the police to get them all.

When he was done with that, he jumped back onto a rooftop again, before waiting patiently for the police.

He didn't have to wait long. They arrived within minutes, sirens and all, with more than ten cars and even a few trucks of their own.

From there on, everything went smoothly, as the officers hauled the criminals away while they marvelled over the enormous catch they had been handed. The few searches for Rakurai didn't get them anything, so they abandoned that pursuit fairly quickly.

One of them cracked a joke about taking one truck for themselves, but his female partner smacked him over the head before he had even finished his sentence.

"Just a little joke, puppy." He whined. "I would never steal, that's why I became a police-officer. I mean, just look at my madcap and you know that I am innocence itself."

The man exaggeratedly pulled his police-cap from his head, waving it around.

"Enough of this, Ethan." She woman snapped. "Continue waving that thing around and you'll hit someone. That would be assault."

"As if you don't engage in battery often enough." The man snorted, dodging another slap right after.

Smiling lightly at the byplay, Shirou decided the whole matter was in trustworthy hands. For tonight, he could retreat. It was after all almost time for Sakura to come around again.

Maybe he could grab his customary three hours of sleep if he hurried home now, but he could do with less if needed.

He had truly stirred the hornet's nest with this last act of his. One of the leaders had been arrested and was set to reveal everything about the others as well. By tomorrow, the docks would be a hive of activity and panic, something he might be able to profit from.

But he could do no more tonight.

* * *

' _This is not elegant at all.'_

Tohsaka Rin was not a morning person. She never had been and never would be either, and this morning was even worse, since she had foolishly remained awake until three in the morning in order to finish her research.

She hadn't meant to, but she had to make up for lost time. Those swimming lessons she was required to follow really ate into her free time, not to mention that the girls from her school kept dragging her along to go shopping or something.

Rin always tried to signal that she did not want to come, but everyone around her always seemed to ignore those signals, and she, being the school idol, could not use stronger tactics, lest she lose her perfectly crafted image. So that meant no blunt rejections of foolish proposals unfortunately. As the school-idol, she had to be perfect in every way, which meant saying 'no' to her fellow girls was out of the question.

Thankfully, she was still allowed to use as much force as she wanted when rejecting perverts and losers asking her out. Apparently, it didn't count if she used violence on those types.

Strange, but who was she to question such a convenient trait of Japanese culture?

Despite that little stroke of luck though, she was still without any way to prevent her 'friends' from dragging her along everywhere, wasting her precious time.

Which eventually culminated in her getting too little sleep, meaning she had to douse herself in ice-cold water in order to wake up completely. She should get that over with.

"KYAAAAAA!"

Glad that was over with. Now just some combing her hair, putting it in twin tails and putting on her clothes, perfectly neat, and she was presentable again. Enough to step outside, even though she felt as if she could fall asleep on her feet any moment.

Walking out her house, locking the door and checking the Wards, as she did every morning, Rin yawned one last time, before putting on her 'idol-smile' and making her way over to school. She could only pray to the Root that she would be free this afternoon.

Really, was it so much to ask for friends who could read between the lines? Who were able to acknowledge and accept that she didn't want to hang out every day? That she had better things to do than shopping, going to restaurants and other nonsense? Even her wallet was greatly suffering under this.

Just one friend of that kind, that was all she asked for.

"Oi, Tohsaka-san, wait up!"

Speak of the devil and she will appear. Rin's smile turned a tad bit more honest as she stopped and turned around, watching as Mitsuzuri quickly caught up to her, a wide smile on her face and a twinkle in her eyes.

She was almost the perfect manifestation of what a good friend would look like to Rin. She was happy and exuberant, yes, but she was also very adept at reading between the lines and never dragged Rin anywhere she didn't want to go.

She seemed able to tell at a glance whether Rin was in the mood for something or not, and the black-haired girl could only be thankful to her for it. It was such a pity that they didn't go to the same school.

"Good-morning, Mitsuzuri-san." She responded warmly. "How are you?"

"I am well, thank you." The brunette replied chipperly, before leaning closer to Rin's face, a sharp look coming to her eyes as their noses almost touched. "Had a rough night I see?"

Rin huffed. That was one of the few downsides to being close to this girl. She was very perceptive, and Rin had a lot of trouble fooling her with the image that others seemed so eager to eat up. Why, her cheeks were turning red, that's how annoyed she was.

"Yes, I couldn't sleep." She eventually responded, leaning back from the inquisitive stare. "I was, uh…"

"Working until deep in the night?" Mitsuzuri suggested with a wince. "Yeah, me too. We are at the last months of middle school, almost done, but for some reason, they think we need a lot of extra work."

"Ah yes, that was it exactly." Rin affirmed quickly. It was as good an excuse as she was going to get, and it did have a core of truth in it. She had indeed been working until deep in the night, just not on the schoolwork, which she had finished after an hour.

"Now don't just stand there." Mitsuzuri suddenly proclaimed, grabbing Rin's shoulders, turning her around and pushing her forwards along the street. "Miss School-Idol can't be late, come on."

"Uh? Ah, yeah, yeah." Rin brought out, completely caught off guard by the girl's actions, though she really shouldn't have been. This was just like her. "I can walk by myself; you don't have to push."

"Alright." Mitsuzuri laughed, as the hand were promptly removed from her shoulders, allowing Rin to walk by herself again.

"You looking forward to our trip to Hikone for the swimming-exam?" Mitsuzuri suddenly asked, giving her another bright smile as she went to walk next to Rin. "You are more than ready for it by the way, so don't worry about it."

"Worry?" Rin spluttered, pushing down the very real worry she felt about that exam. "I'm not worried, I've practiced more than enough."

"So you have." The brunette nodded. "But there actually was something I wanted to ask about that. Apparently, we'll be expected to share rooms in Hikone, like, three or four people per hotel room. We are allowed to pick our own roommates, though if we don't, we'll be assigned by the assistants."

"Roommates?" Rin blinked.

"Roommates." Mitsuzuri nodded.

Rin sucked in a breath at the news. They had to choose their own roommates or get assigned to a room with random people by the assistants? Oh, that was bad. The other girls would probably start vying for her attention immediately once this got out, and then she would have the choice between listening to vapid gossiping for an entire night or potentially sharing a room with creeps...

"So I was wondering." Mitsuzuri went on, snapping Rin's attention back at her. "If you perhaps wanted to bunk with Sakura and me?"

Rin's insides froze, though she gave no indication of this outwardly. Staying the same room as Mitsuzuri was no problem, but with Sa- Matou? That could become very awkward very fast.

On the other hand, awkwardness she could live with, better than with vapid nonsense or creepy behaviour, and she couldn't very well refuse her only true friend.

"Sure."

"Really? Awesome! That means we're set. Thanks, Tohsaka-chan."

"Chan?" Rin spluttered again, something she did way too often when in the presence of the brunette. "I hardly think…"

"Oh dear, here's where I have to leave you, Tohsaka-chan. Bye." Mitsuzuri grinned, waving at her as she broke out into a sprint, laughing all the way.

"You…" Rin began, but Mitsuzuri had already disappeared around a corner, only her laughter still audible. "You insufferable woman."

Mitsuzuri really liked her teasing, and it unnerved Rin quite a bit. She wasn't above doing that to others, but she wasn't used to being the target herself, at all.

Then again, some teasing was a small price to pay for Ayako's companionship. It was… nice, to have her as a friend.

Rin found that she, despite her still red cheeks and feelings of indignation, couldn't entirely suppress a smile at the thought of the exuberant girl.

Annoying.

* * *

Everyone Shirou had interrogated had agreed on one simple fact: The leaders of Inuyama's underworld were all very dangerous, they were all sadistic and as unpredictable as the wind, but none were as dangerous, sadistic and unpredictable as Oni. The man was a psychopath, a monster, who carried around countless weapons at all times and had no compunction about killing underlings for no reason at all.

Where the ten leaders were still friends with each other and capable of recognising good work, Oni was friends with no one, only hated by all, yet kept the reins in hand through sheer brutality and bestial cunning. He was clearly effective at that too, having ruled for many years uncontested.

But now it was time to at last bring this man down for good.

Moving through the docks, Shirou could see the chaos that had been unleashed. Everywhere he looked, he saw men being marched out in handcuffs, officers and SWAT-teams running around and police cars and trucks driving around non-stop.

Shirou had helped the law-enforcement on a few occasions, infiltrating buildings where a few criminals had been attempting a last stand, quickly taking them out and opening their bases for the police for example. Not that there were many who resisted. Most seemed perfectly content to roll over and accept they had lost.

It was honestly somewhat gratifying to know he had contributed to the downfall of such a large criminal network. With the arrest of the leaders, no doubt enabled by Tora's information, the entire thing was collapsing like a house of cards.

It was perhaps noteworthy that Oni had his headquarters in a completely different part of the docks than the rest of his gang, which was where Shirou was now going. He didn't know why the base had to be so secluded, but it did fit with the man's 'mysterious theme'. Shirou just hoped what he found there wouldn't be too bad.

Arriving at the compound that Oni called his headquarters, Shirou noticed a lot of activity going on in and outside of the building. It seemed they were making preparations to flee, most likely in response to the ongoing purges happening elsewhere in the docks at that very moment. That was probably the wisest decision they could have made, and it actually was quite convenient for him.

It was still pitch-black outside, all the light from the moon and starts blocked out by Shirou's clouds, though he himself could still see perfectly well. The criminals however had to resort to flashlights and the lamps of the trucks.

"Come on." One of the men called to the rest. "We have to get moving, Oni wants them out of here before the police arrives, take the prettiest ones first."

"We know. Oni already said that twice." Another snarked back. "Well, these are without a doubt the prettiest, so let's get them into the trucks."

For a short moment, Shirou did not know what they were referring to. That confusion cleared up however, once he saw the girls being dragged along by the criminals, towards the trucks.

Wearing nothing but rags, sometimes nothing more than underwear, the girls were shivering, either from the cold or from fear, though probably both. They all seemed pale, but not quite gaunt, hopefully signifying they hadn't been in captivity for too long.

Their age seemed to range from twelve to barely adulthood, with the little ones often held by the older-looking ones.

Most of the girls seemed completely despondent, but one of them was glaring around with a furious look in her eyes, looking as if she would have torn the men's throats out with her nails and teeth if it hadn't been for the guns they had hanging from their belts.

There was probably a whole lot more to note if he'd looked around a bit longer, but Shirou was done watching, and he jumped down. There were twelve of them present, not nearly enough to even inconvenience him, so he would take them down right now, and he would take them down _hard_.

The first went down when Shirou slammed the man's head into the ground during his landing, the next two when he rose and struck both in the neck from behind. Another two when he picked up one of his previous victims and flung the body at the two, sending them head-first into the wall behind them.

It produced quite a bit of sound, alerting the others to his presence, but since none of them had their weapons out or the presence of mind to make hostages out of the girls, there wasn't anything they could do about him kicking their asses.

Five seconds later, it was over, and Shirou was the only one left conscious, if one forgot about the more than thirty girls now blindly staring into the dark, some of them latching onto each other and others sinking to the ground in terror.

In an attempt to set them at ease, Shirou rapidly picked up every flashlight dropped by the criminals before passing them on to the oldest-looking girls. They all accepted them easily enough, and it served to settle the general mood from panicked to extremely cautious of the violent stranger. None of them made an attempt to interact with him though, seemingly preferring to wait and see.

The last girl however, the one with the fierce look in her eyes, grabbed his arm when he handed her the last flashlight.

Shirou did not resist her grip, even when the girl shone the flashlight directly into his face.

"You are Rakurai." The girl breathed in awe and immense relief, her fierce glare disappearing and looking like she was two seconds away from breaking down. "Have you come to save us?"

"I came to end the criminal underworld of this city." Shirou told her, using the deepest voice he could manage without sounding ridiculous, hopefully. "That includes saving people like you."

"Oh, good." The girl said, before she quickly starting walking around, whispering comforting words to the other girls, assuring them he was there to help. Eventually, she turned back to Shirou. "Because there are a lot more of us in there. Not only girls I mean, but also older woman and men and even animals."

Shirou frowned at that.

"Why?"

"I don't know." The girl responded, tenderly hugging a very young girl, probably a few years younger than Sakura, who starting crying into her neck. The sight, and the knowledge of what the girls had probably gone through, sent a stab of pity and pain into Shirou's chest.

"Do you know someone named Oni?" Shirou continued nevertheless, knowing he needed as much information as possible, before taking a step backwards when the girl shot up straight again, the younger girl still in her arms, her eyes now blazing in fury.

"Do I know him." She hissed. "Of course we know that monster. In fact, no, forget what I said earlier, I do know why there are so many people and animals in there. It's for him! That guy gets his kicks out of abusing and torturing others. Woman, men, animals, it doesn't matter to him. He is a demon, a beast in human skin."

Shirou grimaced at the girl's words. That would explain why Oni had isolated himself like this. Even among criminals, there would be many who would not accept their leader doing such things. Stopping the man as soon as possible just became even more important, but first, these girls needed to be safe.

Shirou promptly handed the fierce girl a baton that he had discretely traced behind his back while she was distracted. He handed a few more of them to the other older girls, while also giving them the guns the criminals had been carrying.

"Try not to attract any attention." Shirou warned them. "Hide immediately and do not come out until the police arrives. They should be notified soon enough. If other criminals do come here, do not start a firefight unless there is no other choice. Guns do not make you invincible."

Far from it. In the hands of an untrained person, they were more of a liability. Shirou had handed the firearms to the girls regardless of that, but that was mainly because they needed to have at least some way of defending themselves.

"I think that was clear when you knocked twelve guys with guns around as if they were children." The fierce girl responded with an amused twinkle in her eyes. "Thanks for the rescue, now go deal with the rest, we'll take care of ourselves from here."

Shirou looked at her for a few moments and then nodded, though not before he had cast a spell over them that would make them unnoticeable to everyone who did not already know where they were.

Not able to think of anything more to say or do, Shirou turned around and walked away, watching the girls over his shoulder until they were a good end away, hidden in an alley. He then entered the building and rounded a corner...

'CRACK'

Only then did he allow himself to lash out, striking the wall next to him with his full power, obliterating it with the sound of a thunder strike, before grabbing his head in his hands.

"Damn it all!" He hissed. "Damn it all to hell."

Idiot! Idiot! IDIOT! A stupid fool, that's what he was. He should have gone directly to the police with the information about Oni instead of holding it to himself! So what if there had been slightly more risk?! So what if he couldn't interrogate the man himself as a result?!

If he had told the police, or gone himself right away, he could have saved those girls earlier. He could have prevented others from being shipped away and again others from being taken in the first place. He could have saved more people if he'd just acted faster.

But no, he absolutely _had_ to take down Oni himself. What a damned fool he was.

Breathing heavily, Shirou heard shouting come from down the hallway, along with barked orders and footsteps coming closer.

Putting off the self-recriminating for now, Shirou released his head from his hands, before taking on a combat-stance. Gang-members were coming at him, no doubt attracted by the sound of him destroying that wall.

Shirou had no doubt that these people were the worst of the worst. With all the effort Oni had put into secluding himself, it was very likely that he had hand-picked his direct underlings too, very likely based on their own cruelty.

The girls outside... It had been clear that most, if not all of them had been violated more than once by these men, regardless of their age. If the fierce girl was to be believed, these men tortured others for fun, for laughs.

They were scum, and they would be treated as such.

The time of easy take-downs was over. The kid's gloves were going to come off.

It was time for _pain_.

* * *

Murakami Iwane considered his current gig one of the best he'd ever had. Plenty of money, plenty of chances to increase his influence in the gang, and plenty of ways to get some pleasure.

Sure, he had to put up with his insanely creepy boss on a daily basis, at a constant risk of getting shot if something didn't go according to plan, but that was manageable.

Besides, the rewards far outweighed the risks. Fresh girls every day, plenty of money, lots of fun dog-fights, cat-fights and whatever-animal-you-can-think-of-fights, almost no work and you got to boss around others. What was not to like?

Well... _This_. This wasn't to like.

Murakami had agreed to a lot of things when joining this gang, among them the fact that he could never have a normal life anymore, but he certainly did not remember signing up for being found and having his gang be utterly decimated by a vigilante that no one had even taken seriously at first.

When Oni had heard of the vigilante, he had laughed. He had laughed so hard that the windows seemed to shake from the sound. He had finished that laughter by an assurance to all of his men that _Rakurai_ would die should he ever try to pull that shit in his base. The vigilante had been... well, just a source of amusement really.

The amusement started disappearing fast however once Tora had been caught in the middle of conducting the biggest drug-trade of the year. Oni's laughter vanished completely once the police rode into the docks and started their purges, and he had to watch on as his life's work was dismantled in a single night.

And now, to top it all off, the devil himself had come to their building, and Murakami learned just how foolish he had been by not running for the hills when he had first heard of Rakurai arriving in the city.

This had to be some kind of wrathful demon. Normal people couldn't move that fast, normal people weren't that strong, normal people couldn't dodge gunfire, and normal people sure as hell could not throw full-grown men across an entire hallway.

Murakami didn't know why he was even trying to fight the thing. It wasn't out of fear of Oni, that man would be done for after Rakurai finished his work here. It wasn't out of loyalty either, or even anger. He was also perfectly aware that Rakurai was superior to him in any and every way.

He also knew however, at some subconscious level, that his very best chance at getting through this alive laid in charging at the vigilante, so charge he did, along with everyone else that had gathered here, in a desperate attempt to overwhelm the demon with their numbers and courage.

It didn't pay off. After he saw two of his friends being thrown against the ceiling, Murakami knew that they had failed to even just slow the demon down. All they had done was serve themselves up for him, make it easy for him to get them all.

If they had run they might have inconvenienced him a bit, but that realisation came far too late.

Now it was his turn to be mauled by the beast, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He had never known pain as he did the moment he felt his legs break by a sweep from Rakurai. Fortunately for him, he only had to bear it for a moment, as a fist then struck him on the head, and everything went black...

* * *

Shirou stood above the last guard of the compound, a man that had charged straight at him in an attempt to tackle him to the ground.

He would have credited the man for his bravery, if he hadn't seen the crazed look in his eyes. It hadn't been courage, but total desperation that had forced him on the attack. Besides, he wouldn't honour this monstrous scum even if it had been courage.

He ran further inside, mindful of more guards and especially those that would be predisposed to making hostages out of the captives. With all the innocent people that were apparently inside, he couldn't take any risks. He would really like to be able to get everyone outside safely, and not have to sacrifice a number of them to get the rest out.

Fortunately, the first 'cellblock' was reached without fuss. It would seem he already dealt with everyone here, as he didn't see a single soul on the way.

The people, the captives, present in the cages largely shied away from him when he walked in. True to the words of the fierce girl, there were all kinds of people and animals here, all cowering before him, most likely fully expecting him to hurt them for his own sadistic pleasure.

Squashing his anger at the sight, Shirou began opening their cells and cages, as well as opening the chains some of the people were bound with. He fiddled with the locks, pretending to pick them open, while actually Reinforcing them to the point of soundlessly breaking.

It took a good long while, but eventually, everyone was free. The process was sped up by some of the freed prisoners finding keys on the unconscious guards, enabling them to help him. Slowly, a large crowd of freed prisoners gathered in the room, carefully keeping their distance from Shirou, fear and suspicion clear in their eyes

After the last of them had been freed, Shirou once more found himself standing before an impromptu leader, the only one who would approach him, this time a big burly black man, who introduced himself as Agil. Clearly non-native to Japan, though he was proficient enough with the language.

"Thanks a bunch for pulling our asses out of the fire." Agil began, while walking around making sure all children and wounded were taken care of. "To be honest, most of us had already given up hope."

"Don't mention it. I was far too late anyway." Shirou responded, unwilling to accept the gratitude while he had been failing these people for far too long.

Agil however just scoffed at that, before shaking his head, mumbling about 'young idealists'.

The large man immediately took charge of the group, in the same way the fierce girl had done before, directing everyone to the exit. It was rather convenient to have those confident types be present, as Shirou certainly didn't trust himself to lead the frightened prisoners away.

"We all heard a very loud sound coming from down the hall a few minutes ago, attracting all guards towards it." Agil suddenly spoke to him again. "I suppose that was your doing? How many friends do you have here?"

"Friends?" Shirou asked in turn, before realising what the man meant. "Ah, I am alone actually."

That was probably not what the man had been expecting, Shirou deduced from the perplexed look he was getting. Maybe he should mention some friends? No, they would discover his bluff in an instant when those friends wouldn't show up.

"Are you going to leave or what?" He thus asked after a few seconds, attempting to change the subject. "And can anyone tell me whether there are more of you inside?"

"Eh? Uh, I mean, yes." Agil replied, blinking a few times, but accepting the change in subject easily enough. "Yes, to both questions. Uhm, Chice will take the others out, I'll accompany you to the others."

"Is that not dangerous?" Shirou asked, concerned for the man's safety. He could take down any number of criminals, but protecting someone else while doing so would be more difficult by a great margin.

"Don't worry. This gang here has a limited number of members and from what I could see, you already took out just about all of them." Agil responded self-assuredly. "Just follow me to the other cellblock and we'll get everyone out of here, I promise."

Shirou nodded in acceptance, and with that, they were on their way.

The walk towards the other cellblock was quiet at first, neither man nor teen able to think of something to say, before Agil took the first step to initiate a conversation.

"Thank you for what you've done." He said warmly, inclining his head to Shirou. "We heard you have been working tirelessly to undermine the gangs. That can't have been easy, or particularly rewarding, considering it made you a wanted man and all that."

"It wasn't so difficult." Shirou replied honestly. "I just had to catch some criminals, interrogate them and then follow the trail they laid out for me."

"They actually gave you the information you asked for?" Agil asked in surprise. "I would have thought they spat in your face."

"They are criminals. Their loyalty to their employers and colleagues is close to non-existent, especially in the face of immediate trouble." Shirou smirked a tiny bit. "When I got Tora, one of the leaders, this gang was as good as finished. Even he put up little resistance when I told him he was to tell everything he knows to the police."

"I'll take your word for it." Agil shook his head, an impressed expression on his face.

They talked back and forth for a while about the precise details of vigilantism, until Agil suddenly cut to the subject Shirou had wanted to avoid most.

"Are you not a bit too young to be a vigilante?" The large man asked, giving him concerned look. "I don't mean to offend or presume I know better than a professional, but still."

"Perhaps I am indeed too young, but I feel this is something I have to do. Besides, I am uniquely qualified."

"Considering you defeated sixty men on your own, I'll accept that. Still, make sure you don't go too far and stick your neck in too deep. I'd hate to see you die or succumb to cold cynicism."

"So would I." Shirou sighed, thinking of how his father had ended up eventually. "I have seen it happen, so don't worry, I try my hardest to not lose myself to despair."

"As long as we're on the same line." Agil's expression betrayed his concern, but the large man didn't press the issue, to Shirou's gratitude.

Then the two men arrived at the next cellblock. Just like before, the people and animals inside the cages cowered as soon as the light from Agil's flashlight fell on them, but hope and relief quickly took the place of fear when he and Shirou started freeing people.

It wasn't too long after that all were free and being led back to the others by Agil. They would join the other group as soon as they caught up. His part in this done, Shirou made to continue his way deeper into the base, before he was halted by a cry.

"Rakurai!" Someone called out, the sound accompanied by rapid footsteps.

Shirou turned around towards the voice, seeing two girls running at him with panicked looks on their faces. He couldn't see anything threatening around, but shifted into a combat-stance nonetheless, just in case the girls had discovered something dangerous that he hadn't spotted somehow.

"Please, Oni just took our friends away." One of them brought out through tears. "Please get them back. He's going to kill them, you can't let that happen-"

"Calm yourself." Shirou commanded, his voice cutting through their cries, silencing them. "What exactly is going on and what can I do about it?"

Once the girls had calmed down a bit, they told Shirou that Oni had come by in the evening, once it was clear Tora had sung like a bird. The cruel man had laughed loudly at them, before taking two of the girls with him, 'just in case the police would arrive before he could flee'.

"He takes some of us every day, but I think he's going to kill them for real." One of the girls across from Shirou cried. "Please save them."

It was clear that the taken girls were meant to become hostages. That would greatly complicate matters for Shirou, and possibly force him to choose between saving them or catching Oni. Naturally, he wasn't going to let those girls die, even if it meant letting the gang boss escape.

"I will get them back." He assured the girls. "You have my word."

They must have really trusted him, because both girls accepted his word without a hitch, the relief practically dripping off their expressions. He didn't know what he had done to deserve such trust, but Shirou was flattered nonetheless, though also embarrassed.

After he'd made that promise, and the girls had thanked him, he sent them away, ordering them to leave the building and hide until the police came.

"Take this phone." He then whispered to Agil, who had stayed behind for now, handing him his burner phone. "Please wait for some time before calling though."

"I will, and once they do arrive, I will try to stall them for as long as I can."

"Thank you."

"No, Rakurai. Thank _you_."

Agil surprised Shirou by putting a hand on his shoulder, but it wasn't an unpleasant surprise. Such heartfelt gratitude made him feel... content, and somehow not the slightest bit embarrassed.

Then Agil left, and Shirou continued on his way.

* * *

In the end, there had actually been some guards left conscious in the building. On his way to the upper floors, Shirou had encountered a few dozen of them, loyally guarding the doors and stairways leading to Oni.

In the end, all they could do was delay him for a few seconds at most.

Though most of his anger from before had dissipated, largely because he had been able to save so many people, he still wasn't feeling particularly merciful. Those criminals would not be happy the coming days, filled with headaches as they would be.

Eventually, Shirou reached Oni's personal quarters. There was a very fancy door barring his way, and according to floor plans, the rooms behind it were fairly large as well. Perfect for a king pin like Oni.

Shirou didn't waste time knocking. Instead, he kicked in the door without preamble, taking care to not kick it off its hinges this time. That wasn't something he was willing to do when there could be innocent hostages on the other side.

Inside the room, he found exactly what he had been expecting.

The large room was styled like a fancy living room, with lush carpets, ebony desks, oaken tables and comfortable-looking sofas everywhere.

To the side, there were other doors, one leading to a room with a very large and comfortable-looking bed, another leading to a small library and again another presumably leading to the bathroom.

Shirou's focus however was on the living room, on one of the aforementioned sofas, to be precise.

In that sofa sat Oni, the gun in his hand predictably pointed straight at Shirou, though the redhead could only be happy that it wasn't aimed at the hostages instead. It wasn't as if _he_ had anything to fear from bullets after all.

Oni himself was wearing a loose bathrobe, nothing else, not even the infamous mask Shirou had heard so many people talk about. His face was clearly visible, as were his legs and bare feet.

Despite his undressed state, the man fit the picture of ruthless gang boss better than any other crminal Shirou had ever taken down. There were many scars all over his body, even one over his eye, though that eye still functioned, and he wore no eyepatch. Tattoos covered the other scars. He wore an earring and a nose piercing, while his grin revealed crooked and yellow teeth.

It was almost stereotypical, yet the man made it work for him.

Shirou's priority however was not Oni himself, but rather the hostages.

The girls were clad only in their underwear, which to Shirou's rage was askew with both of them, indicating the small pieces of cloth had been pushed aside very recently. They were chained up to a wall, slightly behind and to the right of Oni himself. Their entire bodies were covered in bruises, especially their faces, and there were plenty of raw looking scabs too.

Both girls were currently also looking at Shirou, and the raw hope he saw in their eyes only increased his resolve to end all of this and heavily punish the man in front of him. Oni would find himself in prison before the night was over, with a lot of pain to go with it.

"So, so, so, brat. You are here." Oni then spoke up, his voice far too smooth for his rough exterior. "You know, I normally have a lot of patience for amusing people, but you crossed several lines tonight, and you crossed them far."

"You guaranteed my coming when you started your criminal career, Oni." Shirou bit out, not in the mood for grandstanding.

The man merely chuckled. "Please forgive me for not thinking of that all those years back. I should have known that after so many years of successful, uninterrupted crime, some kid would end it all for me. Such a shame you weren't around to warn me before I became a criminal, who knows how many people you could have saved, if only you had been born a bit sooner."

Shirou did not react to the obvious taunt. It would serve no purpose to get angry.

"I have to compliment you though, kid. You brought my entire empire down in, like, three weeks at most. The only other that ever came close to ending me and my boys was that accursed hypnotiser, and even he took several months."

Shirou had to violently suppress any overt reaction to those words.

"He was funny, you know. Some Southern-European man, tanned skin and all, thinking he was the shit and everything. He strutted around for months, hypnotising my men left and right, even trying his luck with me. Fortunately, I saw that happening once before he met me, so I could resist that hypnosis, while pretending to be under his influence. Man, that was a lot of laughs."

As Shirou listened, the man monologued about this 'Alva Allesandro', as he had found out the man was called. The redhead committed the name to memory. This was the best intel he had gotten since the Dead Apostle.

The rest of Oni's tale pretty much went along the same lines as the tales of the other gang-bosses, with the exceptions that Oni had been mighty already before the Magi had come to him.

"Then, after he'd decided he'd had enough of me, that fucker tried to have me killed, to elevate some other gang." Oni sniffed, sounding honestly insulted. "As if our months together meant nothing to him. Well, I didn't fall for that, no sir. I beat every other competitor Allesandro threw at me, like the pansies they were."

So Oni had actually lasted through the disposal-phase. That was certainly unique, the other bosses hadn't done nearly as well. Putting aside the fact that Oni's death would have been a blessing for this city and its surroundings, Shirou almost had to admire his grit if nothing else.

Still, why was the man so helpful to him?

"Why are you telling me this?" Shirou thus questioned, not used at all to such cooperation.

"Because I want you to take those bastards down. To fuck them up the ass like they almost fucked me." The scarred criminal laughed. "I should thank you, really. Being taken down by the greatest vigilante in Japanese history is a great honour, and a good way to end my well-lived life."

"Well-lived?" Shirou demanded, not believing his ears and breaking his composure for the first time. "You didn't live well at all. You abducted countless innocent people, you sold them like cattle, you treated your actual cattle abhorrently and you ran the criminal underworld to booth. Even your own men hate you."

"Everyone hates me, sweetheart, that's the pleasure of being me." Oni smiled "But I suppose I've said enough, don't know anything more to say anyway. Now, let me put this useless thing away."

And with that, he dropped the gun he had been holding, right on the ground, before Shirou's surprised eyes. The girls behind him started crying in relief as Oni raised his hands above his head, seemingly in surrender. Shirou however did not trust the smarmy smile at all.

"Are you giving up?"

"No." The man's grin widened as the girls fell completely silent again at that. "Just some false hope for the girls here. No, I think I need to motivate you, and what better way to motivate a hero than to make him fail to save two precious innocent girls. It's time for my last surprise and grand exit out of life. Do make sure to dodge, I can't have you dying now."

The next moment, the man pulled a grenade from his bathrobe. An actual, army-style grenade.

Both girls screamed in fear and Shirou's eyes widened in shock as Oni grabbed the pin of the grenade to pull it out, his deranged grin never wavering.

Shirou was on him the next instant, having reinforced his entire body by reflex after seeing two people in mortal danger. To his immense relief, he was able to grab Oni before he could pull out the grenade's pin.

With one arm, Shirou grabbed the hand that was about to pull out the pin and forced it away and into the air, holding it there. Shirou's other hand grabbed the forearm of the hand that held the grenade itself. He then lifted Oni's entire body from the sofa.

Twisting the man's arm, Shirou forced him to drop the grenade, which he immediately kicked to the other side of the room, after which he threw the criminal to the ground, hard.

Oni groaned in pain upon coming into contact with the floor, and Shirou straightened up again, assuming the matter to be over.

The next moment however, Oni rose again, now holding a new gun, pulled again from the bathrobe. He aimed the gun straight at the girls, a crazed look in his eyes as they screamed again. Oni's finger went to the trigger…

Not knowing why he was even surprised anymore, Shirou immediately went for the gun. Unfortunately for him, Oni was standing right between him and the girls, with his back to Shirou, meaning Shirou would have to force him aside or pass him by in order to grab the gun.

Shirou chose to pass him by, his eyes fixed on the weapon. He set his forearm against Oni's chest and pushed, forcing the man to bend backwards, while the other hand went for the gun, attempting to knock it out of the man's grasp, by breaking every bone in his arm if he had to.

Oni struggled against Shirou's arm though, trying to straighten his back again, prompting Shirou to push harder. Oni still refused to let go of the gun though, and Shirou hooked his leg around Oni's legs to trip him up, before giving one last mighty push…

'CRACK'

For a moment, for a short, horrible moment, Shirou feared the gun had fired.

The next moment however, he saw that both girls were completely fine, if utterly terrified, and the gun wasn't smoking. It hadn't been fired after all.

He had only a few seconds to wonder what the sound had been, before Oni suddenly fell backwards, his body dropping to the ground in a way only the dead can.

Shirou's last shove against the man's chest, forcing his upper body backwards, coupled with his leg preventing Oni's lower body from following, had broken the man's spine.

Shirou had to stop himself from throwing up once he saw that the man had almost been folded in half, forming a 'U'-form with his body. His spine had to have shattered for that to be possible. There was no way Oni could have survived that.

Oni was dead.

H-he had just killed a person…. with his own hands….

He, Emiya Shirou, had just folded a man in half, accidentally, in a struggle for a gun.

Shirou could only look at his arms. The arms he had just used to kill a man, while not even intending to do so. He hadn't properly grasped the strength in those arms before, but…

"E-Excuse m-m-me, s-s-sir?" A terrified voice suddenly stammered out from his left.

Shirou immediately shoved his shock to the back of his mind, dropping his arms and looking to his side, his expression going blank. He couldn't think about his own problems now, there were still people to save. He would have to put off his personal issues until this whole matter was resolved and everyone was safe again.

He wasted no time in freeing the girls, choosing to just break the chains, before setting them down in two of the sofas. He then healed their wounds, with them watching in awe as their maladies disappeared.

"Amazing. To think there are people out there that can do this." One of the girls breathed out, before looking at him with an obviously fake smile, clearly only just holding back her tears. "I am so, _so_ happy you are here. Thank you so, _so_ much for saving us."

Shirou nodded once with a brittle smile of his own, slightly happy that he had been able to save them from further harm at least. When they didn't relax, he realised that they couldn't see the lower half of his face. Shirou then removed his mask, figuring it didn't really matter at this point.

The first girl looked at him in wonderment, probably surprised he was younger than her. The second girl however didn't even give him a glance.

She had yet to stop crying, as she clung to the first girl as much as she could, looking like she was two seconds away from fainting. The first girl hugged her back with as much strength as possible, whispering soothing words in her ear, but it was clear she too was close to passing out of exhaustion and shock.

Shirou stood up once he had finished healing, carefully not commenting on anything, choosing to wait until they had regained some of their composure. It was important to let them set the tone of the conversation, to give them back some of the control that had been taken from them so cruelly.

Eventually, the girls let go of each other again.

"Are you going to be okay?" Shirou asked, as he looked from the one to the other and back, trying to look as professional as possible, though he felt anything but professional at the moment. "This can't have been easy, either my actions or what happened before."

"We will be fine. Besides, seeing you in action was really awesome." The bolder girl said, purposefully not looking at the body in the corner. "But I think it is going to be a long while before we can get over this. It would be so much easier if we could just forget it."

Shirou could only agree. Getting over the traumatic experiences the girls had undoubtedly suffered would not be easy by any means. Fortunately, they wouldn't have too.

"Don't worry about that." He said softly, making sure he met both their gazes. **"You won't remember any of this."**

He quickly removed all memories of what had transpired in this room, making it seem like they had slept through it all instead. They would keep the memories from downstairs, in the cages, but Oni's… personal attention, would never rise to the surface again, and neither would the impossible things he had done.

After he was done altering their memories, he let the girl sink away into a deep and dreamless sleep.

His ears then picked up on sirens coming from outside while he placed his mask back on, meaning he had to leave quickly if he wanted to get away before they saw him.

Then again, a lot of people had seen him tonight. The only thing he could do was hope they hadn't seen him properly in the dark and that Agil and the fierce girl would keep silent on what they knew.

He also had to decide quickly now whether he wanted to dispose of the body or not.

Shirou hesitated. He could either destroy the body completely and make everyone think Oni was still out there, potentially leaving his victims in life-long fear of him, or he could leave it and become known as a murderer, no doubt increasing the priority of his capture a great deal.

In the end, he decided to take the hit to his reputation. It was more important that the victims got closure than that his resume remained spotless.

Leaving the body and the girls where they lied, though he set a ward around the girls that would protect them against evil intentions, he jumped out of one of the windows, Mjolnir once more in hand, its presence comforting, flying upwards, before setting down on a nearby rooftop to watch over it all.

To his delight, he saw Agil standing in front of the large group of freed captives, with the fierce girl standing next to him, both speaking to the newly arrived police-officers.

It made him even happier that the officers taking charge of the whole thing were officers Assault and Battery, or whatever their names were. Those had given off a trustworthy vibe before and still did so now.

It seemed that matter was in trustworthy hands now, and everything was finally over.

Shirou didn't feel any triumph however as he began his way back to Fuyuki-City. He just felt hollow, empty and despondent. He honestly felt terrible.

He wanted to become a hero of justice, one that saves all, but today, by taking a life, accidentally even, he had taken a step away from that goal. He would have to work very hard to even begin to make up for what he had done.

For without a doubt, tonight had turned into an absolutely failure.

He was a murderer now.

* * *

Opening the door to the Emiya-estate, Sakura silently sneaked inside, making sure to produce not a single sound as she walked through the hall on her way to the kitchen. Fortunately for her, Senpai always left the key hidden in front of the gates, or she would be locked outside.

She was much too early today, having arrived hours sooner than normally, but she couldn't help it. She had woken up only a short while ago with a terrible feeling of foreboding, one that told her she was needed at her Senpai's house, so she had come at once.

She didn't know what she was needed for, but she figured the first thing to do would be waking up her Senpai, to find out what he needed her help with.

Maybe she could wake him again with a ki-

No! She had to think of Ayako! She had given her word to the brunette that she could have Shirou and that was it. Sakura would not go back on her word.

Her mood now somewhat worse than before, Sakura pushed open the door to the dining room…

Only to see her Senpai already sitting there at the table.

Stopping dead in her tracks, Sakura took a moment to regain her bearings, before she went in to greet him with her customary smile.

Once she got into arm's reach however, she froze again, the words stuck in her throat as she saw her Senpai's face.

Sadness. Immense sadness and regret were all that she could see. He almost looked dead if it hadn't been for the sheer grief that seemed to roll off of him in waves.

He didn't cry yet his eyes were glassy. He didn't frown yet his blank face screamed of regret. He sat hunched over, looking at his hands as if it was the first time he saw them, like he couldn't believe they were his.

She didn't know what had happened, whether someone had died, Senpai had failed doing something important or whether the stress of the past months was finally catching up to him, but Sakura did know what she had to do.

Without preamble, she slid onto the ground to sit in front of him, before she leaned forward and hugged him with every bit of strength she had, like he had done for her so often before.

Her Senpai didn't react at first, but after a few minutes, his arms slowly came up to embrace her as well, as she placed her head on his chest, letting his chin rest on her head in turn.

She wouldn't ask him what was going on. If he wouldn't tell her, it was none of her business, but she would be there for him, just like he always was for her.

' _This is nice.'_ She thought, contently sinking away in her Senpai's strong arms, all thoughts about Ayako, Worms and properness forgotten for the moment, as she enjoyed the hug to its fullest extent, snuggling against her Senpai's chest.

She wouldn't mind starting every day like this.

…

…

Except for Senpai being sad! She did _not_ want him to be sad.

Hugs were nice though.

* * *

 **And there we are.** **Done with the next chapter. A bit faster than the previous one, but well. I hope I can get another chapter out in the next two weeks, but no guarantees. I hope everyone enjoyed.**

 **A lot of things happened in this chapter. By popular demand, I won't go over them again, except for the most important points.**

 **Shirou is slightly assuaged by Shinji's and Sakura's words, but he still doesn't trust Zouken at all. Don't worry people, we are approaching chapter 'Pest-Control'.**

 **Yeah, Shinji is better person than in canon, that is just a fact here. Still no saint, still cannot handle power at all, but better.**

 **Shirou obtains one of the names of the Magi, that'll come back later.**

 **And we get first blood. Shirou kills someone, completely by accident. Fortunately for him, it was a true villain and someone who was planning on going out with a bang already, but still. We all know how difficult that is for Shirou. It's good he has Sakura to help him with a nice big hug.**

 **Also, discord. Here's the link: discord . gg / YaZvJJj**

 **Don't forget to remove the spaces.**

 **Thanks to crazylich79 and liamrodhudson331 for editing the chapter.**

 **Okay, that was everything.**

 **Ted is gone again.**


	15. Escalation

**Escalation**

"Get in the bus everyone. It's time to leave. Say your goodbyes, kiss your mother on the cheek and hug your dad, come on, we can't be late, they are waiting for us in Hikone. When you get back, you can show off your new swimming-certificate."

Ryuudou Issei watched in bemusement as his peers entered the buses, their faces full of anticipation for their trip to Hikone.

Kishimoto-Sensei was trying to keep order in this chaos, yelling his encouragements and commands over the parking lot, but it was quite difficult to control the enormous horde of over-excited students moving around in whatever direction was most convenient for them.

Coming along were students of four different schools, as well as many teachers and parents that were supposed to look after the children. Kishimoto-Sensei and Katsuragi-Sensei, the swimming instructors, were also coming along, claiming they wanted to cheer their students on and see everyone pass.

The confidence they had in their students was heart-warming, and Issei approved completely of their calm and easy-going demeanour. Their inspiring presence lowered the stress-levels of every student who saw them.

What he didn't approve of however, at all, were the seating arrangements. True, he could acknowledge the practicality and convenience of separating them by school and by class, but that left him in a bus _without_ Emiya-kun and _with_ Tohsaka!

It wasn't even that she was just seated in his vicinity, no, she was given the seat _right next to him_ , their hips almost touching. Who could be responsible for this… this travesty?

He wanted to scream his rage to the skies above, to curse whatever up there was mocking him like this. The one person who he absolutely did not want seated next to him, was now seated next to him.

Of course, being a well-mannered monk-in-training, Issei made sure to not show this animosity to Tohsaka, and had instead sat in polite silence so far. She was after all a friend of Mitsuzuri-san, so he would try his best not to antagonise her needlessly.

Especially since he had to admit that his dislike of her was rather unfounded. Tohsaka wasn't a bully, she didn't abuse her popularity and she never made any trouble as far as he could see.

For all intends and purposes, she was exactly what she seemed: the perfect school-idol.

Of course, he knew the persona she displayed in public was merely a mask. Anyone who bothered to pay attention could see that much.

That, he could have lived with, since it was clear that she was not a bad person underneath, just less perfect than most people thought she was. Entirely understandable of course, nobody was perfect, and to expect such from idols, who were still human in the end, was both cruel and unrealistic.

What did rankle him about her however was the inexplicable 'feeling' that he felt around her. She felt unnatural, like she was not completely human somehow. It wasn't as bad as the feeling he got from the cave near the temple, a good thing, for he would have broken out the exorcist-equipment already if it was, but it still made him feel rather uneasy.

Matou Shinji also exuded such a wrong 'feeling', but far less than Tohsaka. Matou Sakura on the other hand had no such feeling coming from her, or at least, he hadn't noticed any of the sort. The Mitsuzuris had not once given him the impression that he should be feeling anything around them.

The worst offender however, and also the reason why he was hesitating on condemning anyone who exuded such a feeling, was Emiya-kun.

Most of the time, Issei didn't notice anything wrong about his friend, but sometimes, when Emiya-kun was tired or otherwise not in top-condition, Issei felt like tiny little blades were scraping all over his skin when he was in his friend's presence. It didn't hurt, but it was definitely strange.

The redhead was nevertheless one of the best people Issei knew, always ready to help, expecting neither reward nor praise for his efforts, always kind and supporting to people in need and he had never, as far as Issei was aware, broken a rule in his life.

Emiya Shirou was a good person, there was no doubt about that.

In other words, just because someone felt wrong to Issei's senses didn't mean they were bad people.

Issei had theorised eventually that this phenomenon might be caused by past trauma. It certainly fit Emiya-kun, but it also meant Tohsaka and the elder Matou had perhaps experienced similar traumatic events in their past.

It was not something that was particularly pleasing to contemplate.

Anyway, their auras were bearable. Tohsaka, the Matous and Emiya-kun might feel wrong to him, but it wasn't as if he would die from that or anything.

Also a notable fact was that Tohsaka's 'aura' was stronger than that of the other two. Issei didn't know how it should be measured, just that she felt more unnatural to him than Matou or Emiya.

Except that one time, where the _wrongness_ had been far more discernible in Emiya-kun than it had ever been in Tohsaka or anything else he had ever experienced.

It had happened very recently. Emiya-kun had been feeling rather sad for some reason, despite Matou-chan's best efforts to cheer him up. Naturally, being the good friend he was, Issei had taken it upon himself to visit him.

They had spent the afternoon talking, after which Emiya-kun had accompanied him home, to the temple. They had continued talking on the way, until they reached the foot of the hill on which the Ryuudou-temple had been build.

The subject they had been talking about was modern slavery, and the effects it had on society.

Eventually, Issei himself, in a rare emotional outburst, had proclaimed all slavers to be monsters, and had professed that they should all be executed for their deeds.

That was the moment Emiya-kun suddenly exuded an aura that was so _wrong_ that Issei had nearly been thrown off his feet by it. For the shortest of moments, the redhead walking next to him hadn't just felt _wrong_ , but utterly and inconceivably _alien_.

The Aura had left as fast as it had appeared, as if it had never been there.

Horrified, Issei had only been able to stare speechlessly at this friend. Whether the redhead had noticed his stare or not, Issei did not know, for his friend had continued the conversation, telling him 'it wasn't that easy to condemn everyone to death'.

Apparently, Emiya-kun didn't just politely disagree with Issei's statement, he _violently_ disagreed.

Issei had been stumped on what to do for a while, but had eventually decided to learn from the experience. If his theory concerning trauma was right, he might have caused the sudden alien feeling himself by pushing all of Emiya-kun's buttons at once with his callous remark.

He would have to watch his tongue in the future. Professing such a morally ambiguous thing to normal, everyday people wouldn't be good manners to begin with, let alone to someone as kind as Emiya-kun.

Still, even though he might have steeled himself and decided to ignore the feeling, that didn't mean he was comfortable being near Tohsaka. Just being in her presence made him feel as if he was about to be drowned, buried alive, burned and cut by blades of wind, all at the same time.

Why, it was enough to make a man-

"Is there something wrong, Ryuudou-kun? You haven't said a word to me since we left." Tohsaka suddenly said, looking up from her book to give him a concerned glance.

"Oh?" Issei responded, momentarily bewildered that she spoke to him at all, before he remembered that he and Tohsaka were supposed to be friendly acquaintances at the very least. "No, nothing is wrong, I was just overthinking things and lost myself in thought."

"Aha." Tohsaka said, looking impassively at him, though there was a hint of concern there too. "Well, I hope everything is alright, despite that?"

"Oh yes. Don't worry about me, I was just concerned for Emiya-kun, he's been a bit down recently."

"…He didn't look his best, indeed. I had wondered what could be bothering him, but I wasn't sure we were close enough for me to ask. Besides, his mood seems to have improved already."

"He does appear happier today. I have no doubt he'll be fine soon." Issei assured her. While he knew most of the concern Tohsaka displayed was just her idol-act, he liked to think at least a small part of it was genuine. The only one who could confirm that with any surety however was Mitsuzuri-san, and she wasn't present right now.

"On a completely different note, are you quite prepared for the exam?" Issei continued, not wanting to continue their current conversation. "I would like to say that I have complete trust in you, as do the others. You have trained more than enough."

They all knew Tohsaka was having doubts about her capabilities, so Mitsuzuri had asked them all if they would help Tohsaka gain some more confidence.

It was something that would take little effort, so Issei had agreed.

He only got a huff in return though.

Well, no matter. There were plenty of other things they could talk about to fill the five-hour drive to Hikone, and they both had brought books in case they ran out of subjects.

They were set to arrive at one in the afternoon, but bad traffic might make their trip a whole lot longer. Fortunately, the exam wouldn't begin until three.

And since Emiya-kun had packed them lunches, food wasn't a concern either.

Once they had fallen into a comfortable silence again, Issei's mind started to wander once more, eventually landing on wondering how the rest of their little group was doing.

* * *

Shirou was seated at the very front of the bus, next to Kishimoto-Sensei of all people.

There were an uneven number of students, so one of them had to sit next to the swimming instructor. As no one else volunteered, and he didn't have anyone he really wanted to sit next to instead, Shirou had come up.

Kishimoto-Sensei himself turned out to be quite pleasant company. Where normal teachers would never have dreamed of talking with a student like they were friends, the instructor's laid-back attitude allowed him to do just that with Shirou.

The man was a veritable expert on all things involving water-sports, from surfing and swimming to water-skiing and even beach-volleyball.

"The water is my home", Kishimoto-Sensei had eloquently put it, and he hated having to stray far from his home.

Their conversation pretty much consisted of Kishimoto talking about his hobbies, while Shirou listened politely and asked questions here and there. His Sensei seemed very happy that someone was listening to him and didn't even mind Shirou spacing out most of the time, as long as he remembered a few key points.

Shirou didn't mean to space out of course, it was just that he had other things on his mind at that moment. His own first kill chief among them.

It had been several weeks now since he had ended Oni's life.

It had been... difficult for him to live with that, but he was realistic enough to know the day had been bound to arrive sooner or later. You couldn't fight criminals without ending a life one day. His father had hammered that in well, and it had helped a bit in processing the matter.

The continued support of Ayako and Sakura, mostly in the form of company, had also greatly contributed to him getting past that experience. Their concern for him, despite not even knowing what was bothering him, had been heart-warming.

Of course, Shinji had bluntly told him to 'stop feeling sorry for himself and get over it', while Issei had expressed 'complete confidence in Shirou's integrity, meaning that whatever he was feeling bad about was most likely not his fault'.

Even Tohsaka had contributed, by telling him in no uncertain terms that his behaviour was pathetic and altogether unbecoming of him.

Harsh, but it did help.

He still regretted killing of course, but he had found that he didn't regret killing _Oni_. He'd had several weeks now to come to terms with it, and he could conclude by now that most of the blame for his death fell on the man himself.

Oni had been a monster, who had intended to kill himself and take two innocent girls with him, purely to spite Shirou, while he had also made himself guilty of countless other heinous crimes over the course of his career. There were few people that, for a lack of a better word, 'deserved' death as much as Oni did.

It didn't completely take the guilt away, but it had certainly helped.

He had only been mopey for a week really. After that he'd continued his vigilante-work, but it had still bothered him, it was still bothering him, even now.

No longer. Today was the day he would push himself past that and acknowledge that he couldn't change the past. What was done was done, and he just needed to be more careful in the future to avoid killing someone else.

"And that concludes my story, though I don't think you really listened to any of it."

The amused voice of Kishimoto-Sensei broke Shirou out of his contemplations, as the teen realised that he had zoned out completely during most of the man's latest story. Very impolite and not at all what he had intended.

When he tried to apologise however, Kishimoto-Sensei carelessly waved it off.

"You already seemed to have a lot on your mind." The teacher said. "I cannot fault you for being lost in thought when it is clear you have a lot to think about. If anything, I'm just happy your mood has improved. You seemed so sad during the lessons over the past month."

"I see." Shirou muttered, impressed the man had picked up on that so easily. "Regardless, I apologise for not paying attention."

"It was a dull story anyway." The man said dismissively. "I assume your own life and whiles are far more important than my rambling. Now, I won't pry into the cause for your mood during the past month, but I will tell you that it is perhaps time to either ask for help or move past it?"

The man then threw up his hands. "I mean no insult with my words. I know how it is to wallow in guilt, but I can tell you that it serves no purpose at all. Best to move on."

Shirou managed a curt nod in response to the instructor's words. The man was right. It was high time that he moved past the events of Inuyama completely. There was nothing he could do about it anyway.

It was regrettable that he had killed, but it was something inevitable. Even if he was going to do his damnest to avoid more deaths, he knew that it was unrealistic to expect no casualties during his Quests.

Didn't mean he wouldn't still try to save everyone though.

"I hope you feel ready for the exam." Kishimoto-Sensei went on, as Shirou finally gave him his full attention. "But even if you don't _feel_ ready, kid, I have seen you go, you _are_ ready."

"Thank you, Sensei." Shirou replied. He had the fullest confidence he would pass the exam with ease, but the instructor's words were appreciated nonetheless.

"But do make sure to give your all. You in particular can't slack off; you have your admirers watching you after all." Kishimoto-Sensei grinned, flexing the muscles in his arms in obvious macho-poses. "Can't disappoint the ladies when they want to see the gains."

"Uh? What do you mean with admirers, Sensei?"

The completely warranted, in Shirou's opinion at least, question was met by an incredulous gaze from the teacher, who looked at Shirou as if the teen had told him the sky was purple.

"What do you mean what do I mean? I meant your girls. Those who have been staring at you every lesson. Those admirers."

"I still do not know what you mean."

Shirou was completely lost. His Sensei spoke of admirers he had apparently never noticed? But surely, he would have noticed if someone he wasn't familiar with had been staring at him every lesson? Not?

Seeing his clueless expression, Kishimoto-Sensei shook his head in consternation.

"Those girls must be quite desperate by now if you notice so little." He spoke, looking exasperated with the redhead's cluelessness. "But even though I do pity them a bit, they are going to have to do this themselves. End of the subject. Time to talk about something else."

And from there, Kishimoto-Sensei went back to speaking about his hobbies, completely ignoring Shirou's repeated requests for an explanation.

* * *

Katsuragi hadn't really known what to think when he got the request to give a swimming-course in Fuyuki-City.

True, he had been to the city plenty of times before and he was a swimming champion and certified teacher, making him an excellent candidate for the job all around, but what had puzzled him was the who and why.

So he had elected not to agree yet, but requested more information instead. He wanted to know what he was supposed to be doing before he accepted any deals.

Apparently, the number of drownings had risen dramatically in many cities across the country, though especially in Fuyuki-City. To combat this problem, the city-councils had decided to provide courses for children of a certain age, so that they could learn how to swim from professional teachers, such as Katsuragi himself.

He had absolutely no problem with that. It was a good thing that children would learn such an essential skill, and he himself wasn't opposed to such an easy gig either. It would only take a few months, a few hours a day, not to mention that the pay was phenomenal.

When he had asked who was actually paying for it all however, he had received quite the shock. They had revealed to him that _one_ rich guy was apparently paying the expenses for every city that participated in the program.

This mister Yonder really had to be both very rich and very much a philanthropist to pay for all of this without even cashing in on the reputation boost.

But that was ultimately none of Katsuragi's concern. He simply had to teach the kids how not to drown and perhaps save others while they were at it. If he simply did that, less of them would die later along the line and he would get a hefty sum of money.

Katsuragi was more than aware all the talk about money made him seem cold and greedy, but that wasn't entirely true. He liked money, yes, but he also genuinely cared about the children he was teaching. He could confidently say that he would have accepted the offer even if the pay had been one-tenth of what it actually was.

He found he couldn't entirely suppress a feeling of pride watching the children he had taught pass their exams, one by one and without fail.

Most of the children were already done by now and the exam was nearing its end. A good thing too, for the day was almost over. It hadn't gotten dark yet outside, but Katsuragi knew the sunset was rapidly getting closer.

When they first arrived, it had been almost precisely at the expected time. They hadn't encountered any bad traffic at all on their way to Hikone, which could almost be considered a miracle.

After arriving at the hotel that they would be staying at, hotel Maihame, the children had been given one hour to bring their luggage to their rooms. The groups that they had made in advance were handed their room numbers and their keys, before they were off.

They were supposed to enter their rooms for a moment, drop off their luggage and then assemble in the lobby of the hotel again. They had a maximum of one hour for that task.

He and Kishimoto had seen their own room as well. It was a rather nice and luxurious room, which once more showed that mister Yonder had not spared any expenses for this trip.

Their luggage had been dumped quickly and the two men had then sped down again to the lobby in order to wait for the students.

Counting them after the full hour had passed had been a bit of a hassle, but after that was done and it was ascertained they had everyone present, they had all quickly walked towards the swimming pool where the exam was held.

So far, not a single one of his students had failed the exam. They were often even more skilled than was necessary, which was very pleasing to see.

Of course, there were some occasions where one almost didn't make the cut, like that Tohsaka-girl, who, despite her hard work and immense dedication, just didn't seem to have any talent at swimming, but her skill had been deemed as passable, and that was enough.

On the other hand, several of his students, Matou most prominent among them, were a cut above the rest. The purple-haired girl had done all the exercises to perfection and had left with top marks all around.

By the time they left the pool again, the children all had their certificate they could hang above their beds, Kishimoto and he would get their money and the warm knowledge they helped prevent drownings, and the council had done their good deed of the year. Happiness all around.

By the time they left, it was evening already, and Katsuragi could only be happy that they had a hotel to stay in for the night before driving back tomorrow morning.

Arriving at the hotel, Kishimoto called all the brats together for several more announcements and to give them the rundown on the rules they had to follow during their stay.

"Alright then." Katsuragi's friend called loudly, easily talking over any mutterings from the students. "Welcome back to our hotel. This is the place where we'll stay for the night, and as such, this is a place that deserves your respect. We are guests here, and we must follow the rules they have set for us. Additionally, we have several rules for you ourselves. Take them to heart."

Now everyone fell silent, the anticipation thick as everyone waited for the rules.

"First of all, you have all made groups before we left on this trip. That is the group you will share a room with, no one else. Swapping groups at the last moment is _not_ permitted and will be punished. You will also all be in your rooms by eight o'clock. This will be checked, and failure to comply will result in a lot of trouble for you all. It is also heavily advised to be in bed by eleven. We cannot enforce this, so it is not an order, but since we are leaving tomorrow at eight, it would be the wise thing to do. I hope you all understand. Now, off to your rooms everyone."

* * *

The first thing Sakura did upon entering her room was pick the bed furthest away from her sis- Tohsaka. Fortunately, that girl had the same idea, picking the bed on the other end of the room and letting Ayako take the bed between theirs.

The exuberant girl herself just looked at them with a disappointed expression, before resigning to the fact that she was to be the buffer between them, as she practically always was.

Sakura knew Ayako really wanted them to get along, but that was impossible after… after what happened. Fortunately, the brunette had eventually seen that as well and now just tried to deal with it as well as she could.

Like right now. While Sakura was unpacking the very few things that she had brought with her, Ayako was holding a conversation with Tohsaka that was very much not mentioning anything related to Sakura.

"But Tohsaka-chan, you can totally trust me not to peek on you while you change, really."

"Well, forgive me for still locking the bathroom door, Mitsuzuri-san."

"Okay, you are forgiven, this time, but I do want a hug as recompense."

"Wha-? N-No, get off me, you insolent-."

All in all, a fairly normal conversation for those two, if a bit more daring than normal, but that was probably caused by the excitement Ayako was feeling at the moment. They had all passed the exam after all, even Tohsaka.

Sakura herself had done very well on the exam. She might even have been the best of them all, according to the teachers. Her Senpai had been very proud of her, doubly so when she had told him what the teachers had said, and had spent the entire walk back to the hotel praising her into the sky.

So annoying that the trip had been so incredibly short.

Granted, he also spent some time praising Ayako and Ryuudou-san, but that was completely understandable. They too had past the exam and deserved their own praise for it, Sakura would be the last to deny that.

She could have done without the praise towards Tohsaka though. She acknowledged the girl had done well, but that could have been said in one sentence, after which Senpai should have gone back to praising her.

In the end though, it mattered little. There would be more than enough praise coming her way the coming days. After all, _she_ was the one who came over to Senpai's house every day, while Tohsaka had to spend her mornings all alone-

No! That was too far. Even Tohsaka didn't deserve that kind of venom. Losing one's parents at so young an age was horrible beyond belief; Sakura knew that very well.

Senpai would have been very disappointed with her if he had heard her thoughts, and that was a good indication that she wasn't doing the right thing by thinking them. Better push that deep into a corner and forget about it. She had been cordial with the girl up until now, she could continue doing so. For Senpai's and Ayako's sake if nothing else.

Speaking of Ayako, the brunette was already smiling in Sakura's direction now that Rin was occupied, indicating she wanted to talk.

"Heya Sakura, well done getting your certificate." Ayako indeed beamed at her after having pranced over to her side of the room. "Now we are masters at swimming. None shall ever doubt our capabilities again. Why, even mermaids cannot- "

Sakura placed her hand over the brunette's mouth, giving her own beaming smile to the girl. "We indeed got our certificates, Ayako-san, but we are not masters. This was a course of only a few weeks after all."

"True, true." Ayako lamented after the hand was removed, before grinning at Sakura again. "That's how it is for most of us. You on the other hand might just be the best in the entire city. Didn't you hear how much they sang your praises?"

"I did." Sakura mumbled, feeling a pleased blush come to her cheeks. "I-I just think they exaggerated, you know. I hardly think I am the best."

"Are you fishing for compliments now?" Ayako huffed, before spreading out her arms in an inviting gesture. "Cause if you are, I've got something far better than compliments for you right here."

With those words, Sakura was swept up in a big hug.

She had been prepared for that since the brunette walked up to her however, and immediately responded in kind, wrapping her own arms around her friend and returning the hug.

The two stood like that for a while, hugging contently, though Ayako's expression took on a thoughtful and embarrassed tint after a while. Unseen to Sakura, she seemed to contemplate something…

Until the bathroom door opened and Tohsaka stepped out.

She was looking behind her, fortunately, and as such completely missed the other two girls separating from their hug like they had burned themselves. A good thing too, for her teasing would have been brutal if she had seen what the other two had been up to.

"Bathroom is free, girls. I suggest you two change into your sleeping wear."

"Right." Ayako squeaked, while Sakura nodded, both trying to look inconspicuous.

That had been very close.

About ten minutes later, the girls were seated around Ayako's laptop, all three clad in their sleeping wear. Sakura wore a purple nightgown, Ayako a light-red yukata and Tohsaka black pyjamas.

Ayako was currently reading the news in an online paper with Sakura watching along over her shoulder, while Tohsaka was still marvelling at the contraption.

Not a lot of note had happened. A minor Earthquake over at Kyoto, a large fire somewhere else, a hurricane was on its way to Florida again, the usual.

A bit more noteworthy were the multiple accidents that had happened on the roads from Hikone to Fuyuki this very evening, but it was assured that the wreckage would be removed before midnight, so the trip back the next day was not compromised.

For the rest, it was all gossip and nonsense.

Eventually though, they arrived at a bit of news about a very hot topic, that being Japan's brand-new, favourite vigilante, Rakurai. He had apparently struck again in yet another city, where he had delivered large numbers of criminals to the police's doorstep. Business as usual for him really.

Of course, many people had already commented on this article, as Rakurai was one of the most discussed and controversial topics on the internet.

Most people in the comments expressed happy surprise that Rakurai was back to work again. Ever since the body of the gang-leader in Inuyama had been found, which was about a month ago, he seemed to have decided to lay low for a while. They agreed that taking a break was the best thing he could have done after killing someone so publicly, but they also professed to be disappointed to have not seen any news of him for an entire month.

Sakura herself didn't really have an opinion on the matter. She only heard of the vigilante from Fujimura-Sensei, Ayako and sometimes the news whenever she bothered to look, but she didn't actively follow him or anything. She had other things to worry about.

Tohsaka, who had joined them once she finished inspecting the device, didn't really seem interested in the topic either, but Ayako was interested, and it was her laptop, so her will was law.

"It says here that this is a link to the biggest of his fan websites." Ayako said in glee as she pointed at said link. "I have to see that. Would you mind if I…"

"Go on." Sakura smiled, before holding up a pack of cards. "We'll wait until you are done, and then we can perhaps play a game?"

"Of course. "Ayako beamed, before clicking on the link. "Just let me check this out and I'll join you right away."

After Ayako clicked the link and the program finished loading, Sakura studied the site for a bit. It seemed very well made, with a nice background that had a lot of superheroes on it, with a lot of reading material and videos as well. She didn't look any closer though, as she had a table to move in order to play a card game.

Ayako giggled while reading, but Sakura ignored her, dragging the table from the corner to the middle of the room. She then started shuffling the cards, something Fujimura-Sensei had taught her a while back.

Tohsaka took place at the table as well, not even glancing at Sakura, which suited the latter perfectly well. She divided the carts into three heaps, before pushing one of them towards Tohsaka and taking up another herself.

After a few minutes of reading, Ayako shut off her laptop and put it away, before joining them at the table and taking up her own cards. After Sakura explained the rules of the games, the three of them started playing, while chatting about whatever came to mind.

"Everyone is really singing his praises there." Ayako shook her head in consternation. "I don't understand why the police just lets that website exist, I mean, aren't they supposed to be against Rakurai?"

Both Tohsaka and Sakura smiled and nodded at her words, though neither really cared all that much about Rakurai. It was mostly for Ayako's sake that they were still listening.

"I mean, the mods do try to remind everyone that vigilantism is a crime and that it would be very foolish for normal people to try and copy him, but it doesn't seem like anyone is really listening. The founder of the site, miss Lighting Bolt, doesn't really help either. She does try to discourage worshippers and possible copy-cats, but she regularly calls Rakurai a superhero herself."

"Miss Lightning Bolt?" Tohsaka asked incredulously, looking up from her cards. "What kind of name is that? Please tell me she didn't change her name just for this?"

"Ah? No, of course not." Ayako huffed, as if the very thought was preposterous. "That's just her alias, the fake name she uses when on that site. It isn't her real name, that's obvious."

"Alias?" Sakura pitched in, not very proficient with the internet herself. "You mean she is hiding who she truly is?"

"That's standard procedure on the internet, dear." Ayako responded with a shrug. "You should never tell anyone your real name on the internet. There are all kinds of creeps and greedy businesses out there. If you aren't careful with your personal information, then before you know it, you get all kinds of scary messages and advertisements."

She said it all very solemnly, but Sakura saw the corners of her mouth were definitely twitching. Ayako was making fun of them again, somehow, but Sakura wasn't proficient enough in 'internet' to understand how.

Annoying.

"Alright, enough of that." Tohsaka proclaimed, looking very peeved at her own ignorance. "We have talked enough about the internet and Rakurai now. I propose we go back to discussing interesting things."

"You don't have a clue what I'm talking about either, do you?" Ayako grinned at the black-haired girl, who quickly looked away again. "You didn't even know what a laptop is. Oh, I'm in one room with two heathens, what do I do? So much ignorance surrounds me."

"I-Ignorance?" Tohsaka spluttered. "Just because I do not wish to talk about those boring subjects does not mean I am ignorant of them. I merely wish to converse about more interesting subjects, like… like the swimming exam, or school projects, or international events if you must. J-Just no more of the internet please."

Ayako bowed deeply to Tohsaka. "As my queen commands. Not one more word about the forbidden subject shall be uttered in your majestic presence. This humble one begs your forgiveness for her acts."

Sakura thought the brunette was laying it on very thick there, but Tohsaka seemed happy enough to accept the praise, haughtily sticking up her nose, clearly preening a bit at Ayako's words.

As expected of a Tohsaka, arrogant and callous as they all were.

* * *

Shirou was ready to go out tonight, to scour the streets of Hikone, though he knew not how much good that would do. He would have only one night to find any clues in this city after all, and he knew that was not enough to make any significant progress.

Hikone was very far away from Fuyuki-City, too far for him to visit in one night. The time he would need to travel to and from the city would take the entire night, meaning that for now, he wasn't able to do anything in Hikone in the time he had between Sakura leaving in the evening and arriving in the morning.

This was the only night he'd have in the city for quite a while as a result.

Yet even one night was better than none, and he might stumble on something anyway if he was lucky. Not to mention he could get the lay of the land, in preparation for when he got fast enough at flying with Mjolnir to make visits to Hikone actually worthwhile.

Hikone was the last city on his list, the last city that he actually knew the Magi had visited. The other cities had all given him their clues already and he was pretty sure he had broken the underworlds there too, which had left him with very little to do before the trip to Hikone.

For the past weeks, he had thus mainly spent his free time on training in the clearing he had discovered earlier, as well as flying between cities to improve his travel speed.

True, he had been to several missions too, visiting cities he hadn't been to before, to help the police with their job and to protect the innocent, but those visits had been sporadic to the point where his fanbase seemed to fear that he was ending his career completely.

Now, Shirou did not really care what his supposed fanbase thought of him and his actions. It was embarrassing and confusing anyway that he had one in the first place. To think there were so many people that would spend their time on practically worshipping him instead of doing something productive.

Was this how Tohsaka-san felt all the time? If so, he clearly wasn't respecting her enough for actually putting up with all of it on a daily basis without losing her patience even once.

It had however helped him understand that he was being foolish. Just because other cities might not hold any clues relating to the Magi did not mean they weren't worthy of being helped. They probably also had criminals that needed to be dealt with.

So for the past week, he had been going around again, visiting cities chosen at random to deal with gangs and criminals, even though they were almost certainly not related to the Magi in any way.

This time however, his outing was certainly related to his main goal. As said before, Hikone was the last city on his list, and Shirou planned to make the most of the one night he had at his disposal. He would go after the leaders immediately, not spend time taking down every mook like he would normally. Those leaders most likely had the information that he wanted, so they were priority.

Of course, before he could leave the hotel room, there still was the matter of…

"Oi, anyone want to play poker with me? Don't worry, I've got fake money aplenty."

…waiting until his roommates were asleep.

"Now, while I would normally reproach you for gambling, I believe playing with fake money is acceptable, Mitsuzuri-san." Issei said. He had looked shocked when Minori had offered to play poker but had mellowed once the fake money had been mentioned. "Just don't make this a habit. You can lose a lot of money in games like this if you play for real."

"Ease up a bit, Ryuudou, some of us just want to have fun." Shinji called from where he was lounging on his bed. "Count me in, Mitsuzuri, I wanna play poker. What about you, Emiya?"

Shirou pondered it for a moment, before agreeing to participate. They would play with or without him anyway, so he might as well.

After putting the table in the middle of the room, the four boys took place around it. While Minori shuffled the cards, Issei then addressed Shinji again.

"I must compliment you on obtaining the certificate, Matou-san. I have never seen you swim, but you seemed proficient enough."

"Eh? Thanks. You didn't do all that bad yourself, so congratulations for you as well." Shinji replied, looking distinctly uncomfortable with the compliments. "By the way, did the lot of you know that Sakura was that good?"

"Sakura is the best." Minori immediately professed. "She beat everyone during practice and now again. The teachers even say she could go professional if she wanted."

Shinji blinked in surprise, glancing over at Shirou, who nodded with a smile. Sakura was indeed really good. She had proven that quite handily just now and Shirou had made sure to praise her for it, as much as he could.

"While I agree that Matou-san's display today was impressive without a doubt, we have other things to talk about." Issei interjected. "We were going to play a game?"

"Right." Minori said, turning back to the cards and the money. "Let me just divide the money, and shuffle the carts, does everyone know the rules of the game?"

Alas, only Minori turned out to know those rules, but teaching the others went well enough. It took about twenty minutes, but then everyone was ready to go.

Another hour later, Shirou held all the money, while the others had nothing anymore. The redhead had won the game completely.

"Damn Emiya, you are good at this." Shinji laughed, not the least bit bothered about his loss apparently. "You really had good cards; I'd almost say you were cheating, if I didn't know you to be utterly incapable of that."

"Very well done indeed, Emiya-kun." Midori said with a brittle smile. "Enjoy this win, it might be your last."

Shirou sighed. After the family-dinner at the Mitsuzuri-home, Minori had given up on his overt hostility. He hadn't let up on his challenging behaviour however, as he seemed to be of the opinion that he and Shirou had something to fight over.

Now, if he only knew what the other boy wanted so much from him.

"Calm yourself, Mitsuzuri-san." Issei said, adjusting his glasses while giving the youngest boy a stern look. "We all know Shirou holds a significant advantage over you when it comes to the matter you wish to fight him over so badly, but that is hardly a reason to act so hostile."

… That sounded a lot more serious than a game of poker. Issei sounded as if he were referring to some kind of battle between him and-

Wait, did Issei know what was going on with Minori? Did he know the reason for the boy's animosity towards Shirou?

The temptation to ask the young monk-in-training was great, very great, but eventually, Shirou opted out of that. If Issei wanted to tell him, he would have. No need to pressure him about it.

"Enough already." Shinji called with an annoyed look on his face, apparently taking on the role of peacekeeper today. "We are bunking in one room tonight, with a group that we cannot substitute with another. I will not have you fight amongst yourselves and ruin the mood for the rest of the night. Have some consideration for others."

Issei and Minori seemed properly chastised after Shinji's reproach, and Shirou himself nodded once as well to show his agreement. No need to spoil the evening with petty fights he didn't even know the cause of.

"Now, shuffle those cards again. I want a retry."

And with that, another game was started, won by Shirou again, and then yet another, which was won not by Shirou, but by Shinji. Shirou had to admit though he had played to lose. If he had tried, he might have won again.

He really had a lot of luck while drawing cards.

Their games continued for the rest of the evening, as the boys peacefully talked with each other, until their conversation landed on a topic Shirou had really wanted to avoid.

"So, you guys ever heard of Rakurai?" Minori asked, looking as if he'd wanted to ask that for a long time. "The cool vigilante that has been flying around for a while?"

"We all have." Issei nodded, his gaze firmly fixed on the cards he held in front of him. "It is hard to miss him and his actions, as long as one doesn't live under a stone."

"Even I heard of him, and I watch the news only very sporadically." Shinji chimed in. "He's been busy again for the last week, hasn't he?"

"Yup, he has." Minori answered. "I'm really looking forward to what he'll be doing next. This is better than any anime I have ever seen, much realer."

"Rakurai is indeed completely real." Issei sighed. "And may I remind you that he is a vigilante and therefore a criminal? You shouldn't speak of him as if he is your personal hero."

"He is awesome." Minori countered. "He at least has the balls to do what is needed in this world. The police can complain, but even they have to admit he is doing good work."

It was… unexpected to hear Minori fawn so much over Shirou's alter ego. Shirou knew Rakurai had fans, but he never would have suspected one of his acquaintances might be one.

Shirou had to admit he was morbidly curious as to how the boy would react when he learned Shirou and Rakurai were one and the same, but he would rather that the younger boy never figured that out.

"He did kill a man though. Folded him in half even, or at least, that's what I heard. Is that also awesome or do you think he might have crossed a line there?"

Shinji sounded not so much mocking as genuinely curious while asking that question, but Minori seemed to take it as an insult regardless.

"He killed a monster." The boy countered heatedly. "Have you read what that man has done? They even said they left out the most heinous things he did. He is the only one Rakurai has killed, and really, Rakurai couldn't have picked a better victim."

It was a little strange for Shirou to hear his own thoughts and reasonings echoed by the younger boy, but he was glad others agreed with him on the matter of Oni.

"Killing is still wrong." Issei countered, which Shirou also had to agree with. "I acknowledge one bad deed does not cancel out all the good he has done, but can we please agree on the fact that Rakurai went too far in literally folding a guy in half?"

"Fine." Minori sighed petulantly, looking close to pouting. "He's still awesome though."

After the discussion was resolved, they all went back to talking about lighter subjects, until, several hours later, Issei declared it was time to go to bed. Shinji and Minori did not protest and neither did Shirou. He had been waiting for the others to go to sleep after all.

After having changed into their sleeping wear and having brushed their teeth, Shirou and the others climbed into their beds. Shirou did not know how long it would take before the other three would fall asleep, but he was willing to help them along if need be, even though it left a very bad taste in his mouth.

It turned out to be unneeded however. Shinji, Issei and Minori fell asleep after barely fifteen minutes of laying in the dark. One of them snored, but Shirou couldn't see which one of them it was.

Getting out of bed, Shirou projected a set of his vigilante clothes and changed into them, after which he applied several enchantments to his bed, among them an illusion to make it seem he was still there and a 'discouragement' for the others to look closer.

After that was done, Shirou opened the window, summoned Mjolnir and flew outside, flying almost straight upwards for a nice bird-eye view of the city. From there, he would try to locate suspicious activity going on or supposedly abandoned building still teeming with life.

Before he got far however, he stopped dead in mid-air, before instantly turning himself around to look down instead, his gaze drawn towards the main entrance of the hotel he was staying at.

He was detecting Magecraft again, far more potent than expected. Not a years-old trace from a previously hypnotised criminal, as in the other cites, but the smell of a spell-caster themselves.

The smell was originating from somewhere in from of the main entrance. The origin didn't remain there however, but instead moved towards and then through the entrance, into the hotel.

That couldn't mean anything good.

* * *

James Brunevis was of course not his real name. Perish the thought, it sounded so stupid that nearly everyone would have laughed upon hearing it, especially his fellow Magi, whether they were from the Clocktower or not.

But he was currently in Japan, where no one knew what a proper English name was supposed to be, meaning that his current name was good enough as an alias for now. Getting proper documents wasn't hard either, just a matter of some bribing and other less-scrupulous actions. Everything had been taken care of long before he even started with this gig.

Brunevis had stood outside of hotel Maihame for close to four hours already, hidden in the bushes planted there, patiently observing the coming and going of guests, staff and guards.

He had assembled a fairly accurate picture of the flow of people inside the hotel by now, both from his observation from today and from the previous days he had stood here. He didn't want to leave anything to chance after all. He had even put his Circuits to non-active in case the Tohsaka was of the sensitive kind.

If he wanted to enter this hotel and get his target in one go, then he needed to be prepared. A true mercenary never just ran off into a mission after all, they prepared and weighed their options and eventually chose the best course of action they had available.

But as said before, Brunevis had his schedule and his plan worked out by now. In all honesty, he had been ready to go after two days already, but going in before schedule would serve little use. His target had not been present after all.

Now however, the school-trip had arrived, and with them, the Tohsaka-heir. He himself had verified this, spotting her walking among the mass of children entering the hotel. She had been in the presence of other girls, but he estimated those wouldn't be much of a problem.

The time had come for him to strike. He would go in, determine her room number, take the stairs up, force his entry, subdue her non-lethally with the sleeping agent he had obtained specifically for this kind of missions and then be out before half-an-hour had passed.

On his way there, he would do his best to avoid any unnecessary deaths, but since he was doing a kidnapping anyway, hardly an inconspicuous crime, a few unfortunate casualties were allowed in his opinion. Not that he thought his current employers would care even if he blew up the entire hotel in his wake.

But Brunevis was more professional than that, so he would proceed silently and with caution.

He stood up from his seating position, dusted himself off, and began walking towards the hotel, taking care that no one saw him coming out of the bushes like some kind of wildling. He also reactivated his cooling Circuits, feeling the familiar rush of warmth at the actioin.

Entering the hotel was a matter of simply walking through the door but getting Tohsaka's room number would be significantly harder. The receptionist, a younger woman with nice black hair, was flanked by two guards standing a few metres away from her and was unlikely to just give him that information. She'd sooner have him thrown out.

Not deterred by such a thing, Brunevis first approached the guard on the left, pretending to ask for help before hypnotising the man, and then, pretending he couldn't get the information he wanted from that guard, walked to the other and hypnotised him too.

Eventually, that brought him to the black-haired receptionist, who clearly disapproved of his actions.

"You know, you are supposed to come directly to me for questions, instead of asking the guards first." The woman told him with her polite smile still plastered on her face. "Guards are not meant to be spoken to, they are here for security-purposes only and the management really doesn't appreciate them getting distracted."

"Really now? I'll keep it in mind for the future." Brunevis replied, making sure to look sheepish and apologetic. "I just wasn't sure if I could bother you with my problem. I will gladly accept your help though, as I do need it."

"Of course, sir." The woman beamed. "Have you lost your key or your room number? Has something been stolen from your room? Do you wish to extent or cancel your stay?"

"Actually, I want the number of the room where miss Rin Tohsaka is staying." Brunevis told her, watching how her smile shrank at his request. "If you could provide me with that, I'd be most grateful."

"Eh, w-we aren't a-allowed to provide such information t-to just anyone who asks- "

" **I assure you; I would be most grateful."** Brunevis repeated, adding the lacing of Prana to his voice as he looked into the woman's eyes. He couldn't have her discovering that her guards wouldn't obey her anymore. That would only lead to screaming.

She didn't resist for even a moment, instantly falling under his thrall. Without another word, she looked into her paperwork.

"She is currently staying in room 435, sir." She said monotonously. Brunevis waited for a few seconds for more information, before he was reminded that hypnotised people only did the very minimum upon receiving orders.

" **Give me the key to the room."** He hissed at her. **"Tell me the schedule of the guards and where the rooms of the teachers are."**

The woman complied without another word, and Brunevis was happy to see that he had plenty of opportunity to sneak in without being obstructed by anyone. There did seem to be two other girls in Tohsaka's room, but he had no reason to doubt his own capability to deal with two teenage girls.

Now provided with the key, which turned out to be some fancy card-thingy that he had to put into the lock, he was free to go to room 435. He took the stairs of course, as no self-respecting Magus would allow themselves to be caught off guard in a narrow enclosed space like a lift.

Reaching the correct floor, he wandered around for a bit, following the directions on the walls, until he arrived at the correct room as well.

Listening at the door revealed there was no sound coming from within, indicating that the girls were probably asleep. And even if not, that's what the sleeping agent was for. Or he could just kill the other two.

Grabbing the sleeping agent and a length of rope from his pockets and belt, Brunevis put the card into the lock, waited for the little light to become green and slowly pushed the door open…

 _Pain_

Brunevis' head exploded in agony as _something_ impacted it from the side, sending him flying through the hallway, before coming down a good eight-to-nine metres from where he once stood.

As the floor was carpeted and his agony was too great for him to even make a sound, his sudden take-down was very silent. Brunevis could appreciate that, even if that was the only thing he appreciated about the current situation.

With the small part of his mind that could think through the splitting headache, Brunevis wondered who the hell was responsible for this sudden attack, and why.

His question was answered moments later, when a black-clad figure walked into his view. The person wore black clothing, black boots, a hood over their head and a mask in front of the lower face. The person's golden eyes were nevertheless completely visible and were glaring down at the mercenary.

Brunevis then felt a hand grab his throat, cutting off his air-supply and making him choke and wheeze in the person's grip, as he was lifted up until he was at eye-height with his assailant. Brunevis was absolutely convinced he was going to die right there, closing his eyes in fearful anticipation…

"What were you planning to do in that room?"

…When the artificially heavy-sounding voice of his assailant cut straight through the panicked haze in his mind.

For a few moments, Brunevis merely stared at his captor, astounded he was not dead yet, not even noticing the hold on his throat had loosened enough for him to breathe again.

He was reminded of his predicament however when his assailment shook him back and forth.

"I asked what you were planning to do in that room. I would appreciate an answer, sir."

For the shortest of moments, Brunevis contemplated on what to do, before he decided that he was not going to endure torture or anything similar for those idiots in their castle. Loyalty was good and well when everything went according to plan, but he much preferred to keep living without pain.

"I'll tell you, easy." He thus proclaimed, before promptly being shushed by his captor.

Right, they were still standing in the hallway of a hotel.

"Right." Brunevis continued with a whisper. "I was trying to get into that room in order to abduct Tohsaka, the black-haired girl, for my employers."

"And what would your employers want with her?"

"Beats me." Brunevis shrugged his shoulders. "What would anyone want with a pretty teenage girl?"

"You don't know?" The sceptical voice let Brunevis know his assailant wasn't buying it. "So it has nothing to do with the fact you are a Magus and you specifically wanted to abduct the Second Owner of Fuyuki-City sleeping in there?"

…Shit.

The guy knew of Magecraft. He knew what Brunevis was and he knew why the girl was important. That wasn't good, that wasn't good at all.

If this guy was a fellow Magus, he could alert the Clocktower to what Brunevis tried to do, and while he doubted they would care for an Eastern Hedge-Mage, Second Owner or not, he still had several lords after his hide who would only be glad with the excuse to make him pay.

"Hey, man, wait a moment there." Brunevis rattled, now really feeling the urgency of getting on his attacker's good side. "L-Let's not be too hasty here. How about I cut you a deal? I tell you everything you want to know, and you let me go after. Sound good?"

Brunevis felt his heart sink into his shoes when the guy shook his head.

"No. From how experienced you seem to be, I doubt this was the first time you have done something like this. I cannot let you walk free, as you will almost certainly continue your line of work."

"Then forget about me telling you anything at all. I can resist torture, and hypnotism doesn't work on a fellow Magus."

"Hypnotism through _Prana_ doesn't work as well on a fellow Magus as it would on a mundane, but it is hardly the only option I have. **Now, tell me everything you know about these employers of yours."**

Brunevis nodded at the order. Yes, that seemed like the completely logical thing to do. He didn't even know why he had been so difficult before. Clearly, this person should know everything he wanted to know and should be obeyed to the best of his ability.

"They hired me to kidnap the Second Owner of Fuyuki-City, Tohsaka Rin, though I think you already knew that. They didn't give me much on the specifics though, only that I needed to take her from the hotel without anyone noticing me and that I had to take her to them as soon as possible."

" **And you accepted a job to kidnap a Second Owner?"** The question was asked incredulously, which was somewhat understandable, since the Clocktower really didn't appreciate people doing such a thing.

"She is only Japanese." Brunevis explained patiently to his new friend. "No one really cares about the Hedge-Mages of the Far-East, you'll notice that once you get to the Clocktower yourself. Besides, they offered to pay me in gems and I really like gems. It's a flaw I just can't work out."

" **I'll take your word for it."** His interrogator huffed, before continuing again. **"Where are they located? What are their names? What else can you tell me?"**

"One question at the time please." Brunevis sighed at his new friend's impatience, before he started talking.

He told his new friend everything about his employers, beginning with the correspondence he had had with the one called Waudenstad, which consisted of a number of letters sent to each other, in which some of the details had been hashed out.

After that, he went into the details of payment and other such administrative things. Those were very important for any mercenary and very useful to know. Brunevis didn't exactly get the impression though that his new friend was all that interested in those details. That was alright, such things weren't for everyone.

Lastly, they arrived at the conversation he'd had with their boss, a man called Richard Burgon, an old idiot who thought he was so smart and manipulative, but clearly couldn't read anyone who was even moderately skilled at staying calm.

"It was in a town called Hiraizumi." Brunevis told his friend, happy he could provide such valuable information. "Well, they don't actually live in the town itself, they are holed up right next to it, in one of those fancy castles from five hundred years or so ago."

" **I see."** His interrogator seemed very interested in that information. Yay. **"You wouldn't happen to know a man called Alva there, would you?"**

"Never met the guy, but his name was mentioned multiple times in the letters. Alexander Alva or something like that. Don't know any other details about him though."

" **That's fine. Do you have anything else you want to tell me about them?"**

Brunevis thought deeply for a moment, before he remembered the gem he had gotten as his down-payment.

"Yup, certainly. I have here in my pocket…" He dug around in his pocket for a moment. "…A gem that was handed to me by Burgon. I don't know why, he said it was because he 'approved' of me, but I suspect the truth is different."

" **It is."** The person before him said, looking at the gem. **"I can sense a tracking spell on that thing. It seems that this Burgon didn't trust you as much as he said he did."**

Oddly enough, that did improve Brunevis' opinion of the man a bit. Of course, he wasn't happy with being tracked, but it was good the old man wasn't completely senile.

"So." Brunevis then went on. "What now? I have told you everything I know, and I suspect you want to see me behind bars now for my many misdeeds. Turning me in to the normal authorities won't work however. I also strongly suspect you don't want anyone to know of this conversation, so I think killing me is the best option you have at the moment. Strike hard, my friend, I have a thick skull."

" **I can also just erase your memories!"** His friend hissed, almost rearing back in shock at Brunevis' words. **"By the way, with the ease you accepted a job to abduct a Second Owner, I wouldn't be surprised if the Clocktower already had a warrant out for you."**

"Why, they do. Good thinking boss." Brunevis replied, feeling awed at his boss' intellect. "I may have overstepped my boundaries concerning how much violence was allowed against the uninvolved during a few of my missions for the Clocktower. Endangered the secrecy and all that, you understand. I also have insulted several big shots, which wasn't all that smart now that I look back on it."

" **So if I were to deliver you to a priest working for the Burial Agency…"** His friend asked leadingly.

"Then it should sort itself out." Brunevis confirmed. "I think the Church would be eager to deliver me to the Clocktower, in order to obtain a favour from them or something. It's a little play they have, very amusing."

" **I see. Thank you very much."** His new friend said. **"You have truly helped me a lot. Now, let me just remove this conversation from your memory."**

Brunevis was just enjoying the feeling of having helped his friend, when his thoughts suddenly grew very hazy, his memories of the past minutes escaping his grasp, before pain exploded again in his skull, this time only stopping when everything went black around him.

* * *

Standing over the mercenary he had knocked out, Shirou had to admit he was feeling slightly creeped out, which was mainly caused by two things.

Contrary to what many people believed, it was not impossible to hypnotise Magi. It was significantly harder, as their innate Prana rejected such things, but with enough power and skill, such a defence could be overcome. It was still difficult though.

Hypnotising his fellow Magus with the mysterious power had been hilariously easy however. Rather than overpowering the man's innate Prana, it had simply ignored that Prana altogether, as if it wasn't even there, which was one of the things that concerned him. This concern was alleviated somewhat however by the downsides to it.

The first drawback was that, had he stopped the hypnosis for even a moment, by breaking eye-contact or stopping the flow of the mysterious power to his eyes and voice, the man would have thrown it off immediately. Constant contact seemed to be needed.

Next, it would seem only weak-minded Magi were susceptible to this method of hypnosis.

The only reason he had been able to control Brunevis at all was because he had close to no willpower. If the man had slightly more spine than he did, the hypnosis would have failed completely.

Shirou was willing to bet that Tohsaka would resist his hypnosis with the mysterious power with ease, and that even Sakura and Shinji, despite them not being Magi, would resist him, though perhaps with more difficulty.

The fact that he could hypnotise particularly weak-willed Magi wasn't the main thing that creeped him out though. Rather, it was the incredibly helpful behaviour that the man had shown after being hypnotised.

He was supposed to become a puppet, a monotone drone that did as it was commanded, but nothing more. Not someone who acted like he was Shirou's informant, best friend and loyal employee all at once. That was not how it was supposed to be.

Then again, since Mjolnir had arrived, very few things had been as they were supposed to be. He was probably better off ignoring this oddity.

So instead, he focussed on what the mercenary had told him, dismissing the creeped-out feeling from his mind.

If the mercenary could be believed, he had finally found the Magi he had been after for months now. He'd have to be fast, lest they moved somewhere else, but he now had the most solid trail to date.

He was also mildly shocked that it suddenly went so easily, but it was probably only logical that a first-hand source, like a directly hired mercenary, knew much more than a second-hand source, like a hypnotised crime-boss. He wasn't about to complain, that was certain.

This was… so much more than he had expected when he came to Hikone. The one night he had was now the one where he had finally found them.

He could only thank whatsoever was listening that he had noticed the man's scent just in time, before he left the hotel, or he would still have close to no information and an abducted Tohsaka on top of that.

But now he could finally take down the Magi…

Shirou took a deep breath to calm himself. He couldn't act rashly now, he had to think it through first, make a plan, map the lay of the land and take a night where he had plenty of time. Jumping the gun would only work against him now.

Storming the holdout of Magi was several steps higher on the scale of difficulty than attacking the bases of mundane gangs after all, and who knew what surprises they had prepared for intruders. The Phantasmal Beast had proven quite handily that Shirou could still be wounded.

Right, he couldn't be hasty now.

Shirou, after some pondering, decided to go back to his room. He wasn't going to achieve anything worthwhile in the city when he was distracted like this, so he should stay in his room for the night. He had enough things to do before morning.

Like working out what he was going to do with the unconscious mercenary, still laying in front of the girls' room, who he almost forgot to bring with him to his own room.

Walking back quickly and lifting the man over his shoulder, Shirou frantically pondered a solution. He would deliver this man to Kotomine, with a note explaining that he was a wanted mercenary, but the question was how he was going to get the guy to Fuyuki.

He couldn't put him in a suitcase, he couldn't hide him in the bus. There was no way he could convince this mercenary to come to Fuyuki himself and trying to drag the body along with him in the open would create some very embarrassing situations.

That left him seemingly without options, but Shirou needn't have worried.

Once more, it was Mjolnir who provided him with a solution, as the hammer had done so often before.

Before Shirou's surprised eyes, the hammer opened a portal right before his eyes, apparently leading to Shirou's very own personal pocket-dimension. According to the hammer, it was perfectly fit to carry unconscious criminals that needed to be brought along, as they would be placed into stasis.

"…Mjolnir, how long did you have something like this available?" Shirou asked, looking at his hammer with an almost resigned gaze.

The silence he received in response was very telling.

Choosing not to comment on it for now, Shirou placed the man inside the pocket-dimension, looking on as it closed afterwards. He also felt Mjolnir hand him the control over the pocket-dimension, making him capable of opening and closing it at will.

The hammer then informed him that it was called 'the Vault'.

' _That happened.'_ Shirou thought, completely certain that a sweatdrop would have appeared on his head had he been an anime character. _'Best get back to my room now. This took quite a bit of time already, but maybe I can do some research into Hiraizumi before the others wake up.'_

By the time he arrived back in his room, he still had several hours left before the alarms would go off. As he still wanted to sleep his customary three hours per night, that left him with a bit more than an hour free.

That hour was then spent, exactly as said, on researching Hiraizumi and any castles present in its vicinity.

All in all, a very productive night.

He would have to sort out that Vault later, maybe when the Magi had been apprehended.

* * *

Harsh knocking on the church's doors had him looking up from the projects he had been working on, slightly surprised at the rudeness of whoever was outside. He contemplated on ignoring it, but ultimately found himself too interested in who it could be, and what reasons they could have for being here.

Kirei wasn't used to people knocking. If they wanted to enter, which few enough people did in the first place, then they could just push the doors open. It was a church after all, where everyone was welcome.

But now someone had chosen to knock instead and didn't even enter afterwards.

Momentarily grateful that Gilgamesh was absent, as the Golden King would not have taken the harsh sound well, which would have resulted in another earful about mongrels for Kirei himself, the priest walked towards the doors.

He could confidently say he was prepared for anything. For overly polite believers or visitors, for enemies wanting to ambush him, for children playing a prank, for Gilgamesh playing a prank, as unlikely as that was, and much more.

What he wasn't prepared for however, was to see an unconscious man, tied hand and feet, laying on the porch. Kirei actually needed a moment to process that, and then promptly added it to the list of things he needed to be prepared for.

Idly noticing a note on top of the man, he bent down to pick it up, assuming it to be some kind of explanation perhaps.

Reading it carefully, he lifted an eyebrow, before smiling down at man who he now knew to be a the mercenary, one wanted by the Clocktower.

"We got ourselves in a bit of trouble huh?" He asked rhetorically, picking him up and carrying him into the church. "I had best call little Rin for this."

As he had anticipated, the girl reacted with scorn initially, assuming he had called her merely to check on her progress, but she mellowed out quickly when he informed her of her failure to pay attention to the coming and going of supernatural elements in her town.

She came over in a flash, not bothering to knock or otherwise announce her arrival, nor did she greet him, instead demanding to see his new 'guest' at once.

"Where is this supposed Magus, fake priest?" She hissed at him once she had stormed through the doors of the church. "This better not be a joke…"

She fell silent once her eyes landed on the mercenary, still unconscious and tied-up. After checking both his pulse and his magical aptitude with a touch, she had to concede Kirei had been right.

"Alright, so he slipped into town without me knowing of it. Didn't you already take care of him though?" She asked, looking oddly pensive. "How long has he been holing up here in my city anyway?"

"Why do you think I am the one who 'took care of him'." Kirei asked dryly, still fully enjoying his student's plight at her failure. "Would I not have informed you first? Or is that not part of the correct procedure?"

Rin looked annoyed for a moment, before she realised just what he had implied, making her appear completely shocked instead. "You didn't do this? Then who did? Don't waste my time, fake priest and just answer me."

"I do not have the faintest clue, nor is it in any way my duty to know what Magi are doing here." Kirei admitted, again watching with glee as Rin's cheeks reddened. "I found this man this very morning on the porch, with a note attached that said he was a wanted man, and that any rewards I would receive for his capture were mine. Naturally, that reward is yours."

Oh, how he enjoyed seeing her squirm at his words. She knew very well that she needed the money of course, but she also didn't want to be grateful to him. It was clear he was doing her a very large favour here though, and not being grateful was 'unelegant'.

"Well, thank you." She eventually said through gritted teeth, taking the blow to her pride to obtain more money for her magical experiments.

"What was that?"

"I SAID THANK YOU."

Kirei took a step backwards at the shout, though still thoroughly amused. Riling up his apprentice never got old, especially when she knew she had done something wrong. She was a lot more fun than her father was, that was certain.

"I will deliver this man to the Clocktower, preferably before he wakes up." Kirei said, still with his genial smile. "In the meantime, I advise you to search the city for anything abnormal. This man had to have been brought here by someone."

Another growl answered him, as Rin looked down in something akin to… shame? How odd for his spirited apprentice.

Interesting. A shame though, she would never him what was bothering her. He'd try to find out later, when things had cooled a bit.

"Anything else, fake priest?"

"How are your studies?"

Kirei couldn't help but laugh out loud as Rin clenched her fists at his question and marched right out of the church, not even bothering to spare him a goodbye. Not that he had expected one of course.

How fun. Time to call his contacts. He did take his duties to the Church very seriously, and delivering a wanted man to the Clocktower was excellent bargaining material for his superiors.

He briefly entertained the thought of trying to track down the deliverer himself, but that wasn't his job, so he ultimately decided against it. Who knew what risks were connected to that anyway.

He would just watch on as Rin tried to find them. Should be good for a laugh if nothing else.

He would help her if she got into trouble of course, but there was no reason he couldn't first enjoy her plight before stepping in.

Poor Rin, only having him looking out for her.

* * *

 _Several days later_

Several people were forced to jump aside as a man ran past, not paying attention to anything but his destination, not caring about who he ran over as he went.

Despite this very impolite and unsightly behaviour however, no one dared to say anything about it, as this person wasn't just anyone. He was a lord.

This lord was beyond elated while he ran. His men had finally managed to locate their target, after so long of fruitlessly searching. Vincent Balefor was within reach now and nothing would stop the lord from delivering some long overdue justice.

And the lord really wanted to be the first to get to Balefor, and fortunately for him, the Clocktower was only too happy to delegate the task to him. He was a lord after all, if not a particularly influential one, not to mention that he still had a bone to pick with the target.

That combined had now given him the right to deal with Balefor himself, without anyone interfering.

The wanted mercenary from Japan that had been delivered by the Church just the day before had been a godsend for him and his men. He would have to find out who captured the man. That person would have his eternal gratefulness and a favour to cash in from him.

The mercenary, who was wanted for multiple crimes by the Clocktower in general and several nobles in particular, had immediately sang like a bird once he saw where he was. His mercenary career was over, one way or another, so it mattered little if he saved himself some pain by talking.

It had been an enormous but very welcome surprise to hear that he had been working for Balefor, and the lord thanked everything up in the sky that his men had been put to the case, instead of some random other Enforcers.

Balefor was apparently holed up in Hiraizumi, which was now the lord's intended destination.

He and his men would catch the first plane to the Far-East. He even had managed to get the Fraga to come along. He would get that Crest back and avenge his friend, that was almost guaranteed now.

He could only pray he would be the first to arrive there, but he was willing to forgive others for killing the scum, as long as they handed over the Crest to him afterwards. The rest was ultimately inconsequential.

But really, who on Earth would be both willing and able to deal with Balefor before the lord himself did?

* * *

 **There, we are done.**

 **VERY IMPORTANT: The lord here has had Brunevis interrogated, but the scene you saw here is days after Shirou himself interrogated him in Hikone. Meaning that as the lord leaves to Japan, Shirou already dealt with everything. The timeline becomes a bit wobbly here.**

 **It is not as long a chapter as usual, but there wasn't much to tell. Next chapter deals with Shirou and the Magi, along with some other things.**

 **Okay, as for the chapter itself.**

 **We see Issei, who is definitely feeling the unnaturalness around him, but doesn't know what to do with it and eventually decides to ignore it.**

 **We have Shirou getting over his first kill. That has been processed now guys, he is over it.**

 **There are things discussed in the hotel rooms, also involving Rakurai, who, by popular request, now has several websites dedicated to him, as well as a solid fanbase.**

 **The mercenary tries to enter Rin's room, but Shirou intercepts him. You might have expected him to succeed at first, but I didn't see a way for that to work, so Shirou arrives in time to stop him from even entering Rin's room.**

 **He then uses the mysterious power (Shirou-Force) to interrogate the mercenary. This works, but it has limits, which I already mentioned in-story. Don't expect Shirou to suddenly start hypnotising all the Magi now too. Mind-Control was never Thor's forte and actually also not Canon-Shirou's forte.**

 **The pocket dimension is going to make a return. It's basically an inventory, but without the convenient panels that show him what's in it. Remember it well. Some of you Marvel-fans might already know a bit more about the Vault.**

 **A hint, it involves an upset farmer, Asgard blocking out the sun, and Thor feeling that he has to take responsibility.**

 **Kirei receives a little present, and Rin gets to keep the money. Everyone is happy, somewhat, including our favourite lord.**

 **Next chapter is further away though, as I am leaving on vacation soon. Much less time to write and everything, I hope you understand.**

* * *

 **OMAKE**

TedTheRabbit was just easily writing on his laptop, bothering no one, writing his next chapter, when CrazyLich79 suddenly entered his room.

"Ted, I want to become an author too, just like you." The skeleton proclaimed. "I know I can do it, just give me a chance. "

The guy was spirited and motivated, but Ted had already seen his heart. Lich was passionate…for a while. He would never be able to finish a single story as he was now. He needed to learn patience, consistency and the value of practise. He needed to be tempered. He needed to keep editing Ted's story since finding a beta-reader on your own is a hassle.

"No." Ted thus said making sure to keep his voice even and his back facing the undead so it wouldn't see the sweat on his brow. "You are not ready at all. You are impatient, reckless, foolish even, if you overestimate yourself this much. Disappear from my eyes, until you have found some humility."

With that, Ted went back to doing what all men do, not seeing the lich's eyes filling themselves with hate and spite.

Lich made his way over to the perfect solution. 'Not ready', what nonsense. He'd show Ted who was not ready, by completely proving him wrong.

Fortunately, he had read the old myths, or he might never have known about his perfect solution.

It was evening already once he entered the building at the very edge of town, where his solution was waiting for him.

Grail-kun.

"Grail-kun." Lich proclaimed upon seeing the weirdly-shaped creature, kneeling before it while dropping his meagre pocket money into the bowl placed at its feet.

"What's wrong, Lich-san?" The construct asked with its high-pitched voice.

"Ted says I'll never become an author, what must I do?!" Lich whined, waving his arms around, and kneeling deeply after asking his question.

"You're so hopeless, Lich-san." Grail-kun said with a closed eye smile.

Then, a knife landed point-first in front of Lich, and Grail-kun proclaimed the solution in its childish voice.

"BEHOLD! The Authormaker!"

Lich blinked upon seeing it, but then Grail-kun started whispering.

"You'll become an author by dealing with Ted, _permanently_."

Lich blinked once more, before he began smiling with a deranged look, socket-less eyes slowly gaining an eerie red glow.

* * *

 **Please save me.**

 **This Omake was planned and co-created by LukeSky001, Crazylich79 and FenrirNifelheim.**

 **The chapter was editing and proofread by Crazylich79 and liamrodhudson331. Many thanks to them.**

 **Ted shall take his leave.**


	16. Root Them Out

**Root Them Out**

 _The day after the swimming exam_

Vincent Balefor, relentless criminal, Magus, Sealing Designee, and all-round scumbag, was usually the most confident man in the room, but strangely enough, he had been jittery ever since he got out of bed this morning.

He had the feeling that something big was going to happen very soon. He also knew that whatever this _something_ was, it would be in no way beneficial for him or his plans.

It might just be paranoia, but he hadn't survived this long by ignoring his gut feelings. He would need to keep his eyes open for threats from within, just in case his partners intended to betray him, and from without, in case _that_ lord managed to find him.

Really, while being found by anyone from the Clocktower or any other Magus-organisations would be terrible, _that_ lord was one of the worst possible options for Balefor himself.

It wasn't that the lord was particularly cruel or vindictive, far from it even, he was rather soft compared to others, but Balefor wouldn't dare underestimate him. That man wasn't a lord in the Clocktower for nothing after all. In fact, being one of the few that who managed to survive that glorified slaughter in Fuyuki-City proved he wasn't a man to be trifled with.

The issue between him and Balefor being very much personal too didn't help either. Capture would inevitably lead to torture; he was certain of this.

The only one that was perhaps a worse option than that lord was Barthomeloi herself, since she _was_ in fact very vindictive and cruel when she was in the mood for it.

Naturally however, if given half the choice, Balefor would rather not be captured by either of them, or by anyone really. He preferred to live his life free and without pain and had always worked hard to cover his tracks. Unfortunately, it wasn't always up to him whether the tracks were covered or not.

In fact, uncovered tracks were the whole point of the meeting he was in now. The others, who also would rather not be caught by the Clocktower or the Church, were once again in their respective seats, discussing a rather severe problem that had cropped up as a result of their last folly.

Unsurprisingly, it again concerned that chit of a Tohsaka and their 'masterplans' to capture her for themselves, because of course that went wrong _again_.

As Balefor lamented their bad luck, Burgon and Waudenstad quickly took the lead of the meeting, since they were the ones who had volunteered to carry out this particular part of the plan.

"The mercenary, James Brunevis, who we hired to kidnap the Tohsaka, still hasn't checked in with me." Waudenstad began, a heavy frown on his disturbingly rat-like face. "Which is very strange, since the Tohsaka should be in his possession already, and our instructions were to come directly to us with the girl, were they not?"

"They were indeed, my friend." Burgon, the leader of their little cabal, confirmed, wearing a frown of his own. "I was very clear on that during our meeting, and yet James has failed to follow suit. Not even a message has been sent. What should we do?"

"He hasn't sent any messages whatsoever?" Balefor himself asked, wanting to get to the bottom of this matter, the pit in his stomach seeming to grow at each word spoken.

"None." Waudenstad confirmed. "Ever since he left for Hikone, he has dropped off the radar. All signs of him have disappeared, we don't even know if he's still out and about, much less his location."

"Is it perhaps possible then that he has been caught?" Meire Palerna, the only woman in their group, asked with slight fear in her voice. "By Tohsaka herself, or perhaps someone else, like her pet-priest?"

Waudenstad gritted his teeth in displeasure. "That is entirely possible, I'm afraid."

"Then we have to be ready to abandon this place as soon as possible." Balefor professed, now understanding why he'd been having such a bad feeling ever since he rose from his bed this morning. "If we stay here, we are at a significant risk of being caught. We need to move our base, immediately!"

The faces of the others drew into grimaces at his words, showing just how displeased they were with his suggestion.

On some level, Balefor understood their reaction. They had literally spent years making this castle their home, with each one of them having their own little niche, shaped exactly as they wanted, not to mention their Workshops, a Magus' most sacred place, were also located in this very castle.

Even Balefor himself didn't want to leave this place either. He too had many good memories of the castle, not to mention the hassle that moving his Workshop would undoubtedly cause.

He however, understood that staying was an enormous risk, one they could not afford to take. They had to flee at once. No castle, despite its beauty, convenience and importance, was worth being captured by the Enforcers that could be knocking on their door any minute now.

It was just too bad that not everyone agreed with his common sense, however.

"Please calm yourself, Vincent." Meire professed, nervously combing her bangs to the side with her hands, a sign that his words had made an impact on her. "It is just a possibility, let's not be so hasty all of a sudden."

"Indeed." Waudenstad fell in, wiping sweat from his rat-like face. "Maybe mister Brunevis was just delayed, with no means of messaging us, or he failed his mission and is too ashamed to contact us again. There is no need to assume the worst immediately."

"Those are all possibilities as well." Balefor acknowledged, before he continued, feeling very annoyed at their inability to see the risks. "What will we do however if he was captured after all?"

"Then the chance he will talk is still very small." Burgon proclaimed, trying to look charismatic as always, yet not able to hide the tension in his stance. "When we spoke, he didn't seem the type to squeal on his employers, not to mention that it will ruin his reputation as a mercenary completely."

The others gave relieved nods at those words, but Balefor once again almost flew off the handle at their naivety.

"Are you all daft?!" He asked incredulously, only just keeping himself from screaming out loud. "If he was caught, he was caught attempting to abduct an official Second Owner. That is a capital crime, even if it was some Eastern Hedge-Mage. Even if no one would care about the Tohsaka herself, they will still take this chance to torture him for every bit of information he possesses."

"And torture breaks almost everyone, as I can personally attest." Waudenstad murmured, looked extremely nervous again.

Balefor emphatically nodded, happy that someone was at least getting it. "Right, and then they will come for us, a bunch of Sealing Designees, and we will be tortured as well, before they kill us and destroy our research."

"Wait, what?!" Alva Allesandro, Meire's partner and the most short-tempered of them all, suddenly interrupted, breaking the contemplative silence he'd been in since the beginning. "Torture? What are you talking about? Certainly, they will just kill us and be done with it?"

"Y-Yes." Meire agreed, stuttering in surprise and fear. "W-We are guilty of n-nothing but Dead Apostle-research. T-that wouldn't get us t-tortured, would it?"

"…?"

Balefor couldn't believe his ears for a few moments. What aspect of their stupidity had he encountered now? Why on Earth would they ever think they were _not_ going to be tortured?

It then struck him however, that both Alva and Meire came from Southern-Europe. The influence of the Clocktower wasn't very strong there. The Church, which had its headquarters in the Vatican, would never allow it to gain any sort of pull there, political or otherwise, which resulted in criminals being captured by Executors, rather than Enforcers.

The Church would actually do exactly what Alva and Meire had said: kill them at once, destroy their research and be done with it. No torture involved anywhere, not for insignificant little thugs like them.

Unfortunately, the Clocktower was _not_ the Church.

"I suppose that's what the Church does?" Balefor hissed, at which both Alva and Palerna nodded their heads in unnecessary confirmation. "Because let me tell you, the Clocktower won't kill us that easily. We are heinous criminals, yes, but we are criminals who have done potentially useful research. Once the Enforcers have captured us, they are sure to bring us back to the Clocktower itself, where we _will_ be tortured horrifically for every scrap of information we possess, as well as to show others what will happen to those who violate their laws."

Burgon, senile old man that he was, looked as if he wanted to cut Balefor off, but he continued, raising his voice over the old man's.

"And when they are done with that, we will be used as research-subjects ourselves, gifted to those Magi who do in fact behave themselves. Because _that_ is actually allowed!"

Alva and Meire looked completely white and seconds away from fainting by now. Normally, Balefor would feel satisfaction upon seeing that, but as he had only narrowly escaped such a fate himself after killing his worthless uncle and nephew, he couldn't find anything to laugh about in the current situation.

The two Southern-Europeans then quickly huddled together, speaking in whispered tones.

Balefor himself, who was somewhat interested in what they had to say, was distracted from their conversation however when Waudenstad started speaking again.

"I already knew all of this, young Vincent, and I understand your fears very well. Fortunately however, I have a way to avoid such a fate for myself. One that is fool proof and very unlikely to fail."

That sounded very promising indeed, and Balefor was almost tempted to ask what Waudenstad had in mind and to see if he would be willing to share, before he stopped himself, when he caught Burgon cast a very disappointed and disapproving look at the old rat.

Maybe he would ask later, but not now, not in full sight of the old man.

Looking back at Meire and Alva, Balefor managed to catch the tail end of their conversation.

"We can do it. We just need to be strong." Alva whispered, to which Meire nodded, still pale, but also having a look of determination on her face. "It is our last resort, but if we must, we shall."

Burgon, clever old man, then took the lead of the meeting again before their discussion could go any further.

"All this talk about possibilities and eventual punishment is going nowhere." He proclaimed loudly, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "We made our beds a long time ago and we must lie in them too now. I have thought about our next course of action and I believe I have an acceptable plan. Listen as I tell you what we are going to do."

Well, that should be interesting.

"We will wait until tomorrow afternoon for a message from James. If he contacts us before then, everything is fine. Should he fail to seek contact before then however, we will abandon the castle with haste, and go stay in a hotel somewhere."

Cue the disapproving looks from everyone but Balefor.

"Now, don't look at me like that. It won't be permanent. We shall simply wait for a week, during which we don't even look in the general direction of the castle, before we send our familiars to check out the perimeter. Should they find that nothing is wrong and everything is the same as we left it, for four days in a row, we'll come back ourselves to determine whether we can permanently return."

"And if the mercenary has been caught and he did talk?" Alva ventured.

"Then the castle is, unfortunately, lost. We have many defences after all, traps and Bounded Fields, that cannot be missed by any competent Magus. Should the Enforcers, or really anyone else, arrive here, they will know it is a base of Magi instantly and there will be no way for us to get the castle back. As such, do make sure to take your research with you tomorrow."

Now, that was a plan that had actual merit. Low risk all around while not sacrificing anything without due cause. Balefor readily approved of the plan and so did the others, to Burgon's satisfaction.

Balefor could only hope now that tomorrow afternoon wouldn't be too late for them to escape.

Personally however, he expected it to be fine. Even if the mercenary was caught, he wouldn't immediately tell his captors everything, and even torture took time to produce results.

He could only hope the mercenary was of the strong kind.

But even if he wasn't, the castle and its perimeter were very well defended. Invading it stealthily would take at least a dozen Magi, with some serious talent at undoing Bounded Fields.

There was no way he and his fellows would miss such a thing happening, leaving them with ample opportunity to flee before the attacks would ever reach the second line of defences.

No, with a clear and structured plan to follow, they were unlikely to get caught any time soon.

* * *

Detective Osaki couldn't remember a time where he had been as frustrated as he was now.

Maybe the time when _she_ had pulled her damned stunts, or when he had first discovered how incompetent the Fuyuki-police force was, came somewhat close in terms of sheer annoyance, but nothing else in his life had been even remotely as frustrating as his current problems.

It went without saying that Rakurai was the main source of those problems, prancing around Japan, causing trouble for the law-enforcement wherever he went.

Although to be fair, he was often merely the source of those problems, not the direct cause of them.

Though it was irritating that the vigilante kept evading him and his colleagues with complete ease, he was doing good work at least, seemingly with genuinely good intentions too. Wherever he went, crime rates dropped to almost non-existent for a while, and they never got as high again as they were before his visit.

Granted, he had recently killed a person, which had caused quite the uproar in the agency, and had been ammunition for those wanting to paint Rakurai as terrible criminal, but Osaki could attest that the 'victim' had been a monster, one that deserved death, as unprofessional as it was to think such a thing.

Not to mention that they had found a live grenade in the room where the body had been found. That beast of a man had most likely intended to blow himself up, taking Rakurai and two innocent teenage girls with him.

The fact that Rakurai had killed him was completely understandable under those circumstances, very likely self-defence even, at least partially. It was even possible that it had been an accident, though Osaki couldn't really fathom how the vigilante could accidently _fold someone in half_.

 _How_ the man had died was in fact more annoying than _that_ he had died, as it was yet another point on the list of impossible things that Rakurai had done.

Next to travelling between cities at incredible speeds, taking down entire gangs without using any kind of weapon, overloading all the power circuits in buildings and evading capture with insulting ease, Rakurai had folded someone in half now as well, which, according to the coroners, was an inhuman feat in itself.

And Osaki now had to figure out how the vigilante had pulled off that feat, along with all the other seemingly impossible things. With not a single clue as to where to begin.

Hell, there were times he felt tempted to call it 'magic' and be done with it, but professionalism prevented him from doing that.

That was pretty much the limit however of the part of Osaki's frustration that Rakurai was personally responsible for. When everything was laid out like that, the vigilante himself wasn't really all that frustrating. What _was_ frustrating however, were the things _other_ people did because of him.

Added to Osaki's load were the actions of the many fans Rakurai now seemed to have, who all professed that the vigilante was a hero, who was in no way breaking the law and should be supported instead of hunted.

In other words, they practically demanded of him and his colleagues that they ceased their hunt for their hero at once and either let him work in peace or 'finally do something useful and help him in his actions'.

Osaki didn't even try to keep track anymore of the many petitions for Rakurai's innocence that had been started on the internet, or the amount of threats that he and his colleagues had received, or the number of rallies that had been held in Rakurai's name in various towns all over Japan.

He had the distinct feeling that Rakurai himself would heavily disapprove of his supposed fans' actions, but he had no way of making that clear to them without Rakurai standing right next to him to back him up on that.

The next problem were the many officers from other towns and cities that wanted in on the Rakurai-investigation. Some for the glory, some out of curiosity, and a few out of a genuine sense of duty.

It was of course inevitable that such a thing would happen after Rakurai started visiting so many towns, but it was still annoying to have to deal with those other officers who all wanted to pursue the vigilante themselves.

Osaki supposed he should be glad that he was named the undisputed head of the Rakurai-investigation on a national scale, being the one who was both in charge of the investigation in the first city Rakurai visited and also the one to make the most headway in said investigation.

With that fancy title behind him, he had the authority to give those annoying meddlers the boot whenever they came to whine about wanting in on the 'hottest topic of Japan'.

It also meant that he took most of the heat off his colleagues and that he had access to every piece of information about the vigilante found by any officer anywhere.

On the other hand, it also meant a lot more work was coming his way these days, as he now had to look into every single matter even remotely connected to the vigilante, including various copy-cats, the aforementioned threats, petitions and rallies.

Osaki also heavily suspected the workload was far greater than it had to be, no doubt caused by spiteful people who resented him for keeping them out.

In other words, frustrating circumstances.

Fortunately, that pretty much covered all the sources of his frustrations that were connected to his job. Less fortunate was that it didn't end there. That would have been too easy of course.

Even in his private life, he wasn't spared from the frustrations the vigilante brought him.

Not only because his treacherous mind kept returning to the case even when he was off duty, but also because of his own family. The reason for that being…

"Oh, these images are so awesome."

"I agree. Miss Lightning Bolt is so kind for providing us with them. I would never have gotten pictures of Rakurai's latest outing myself, so these are really appreciated."

"I know right? We should tell miss Lightning Bolt herself too, she would appreciate that."

…Rakurai being able to count Osaki's very own daughters among his fanbase, something that made Osaki grid his teeth in dejected anger whenever he was in a bad mood.

He had known that his daughters were very interested in this particular case. They had practically figured it all out themselves after all, back when Rakurai was still a secret, but that interest had quickly changed into nigh-worship as Rakurai kept making waves all across Japan.

He didn't want to deny them their hobby of course, but it was admittedly slightly disconcerting that his very own daughters were so supporting of their father's supposed nemesis.

Granted, he didn't know if Rakurai would consider him his nemesis, or if he even knew Osaki existed in the first place, but Rakurai was _his_ nemesis. That was certain.

Back to his daughters. A lot of their free time, though thankfully not all of it, was spent on those websites made in the vigilante's honour.

Osaki had given thought about having them taken down, but that would be as useless as trying to stop the tides, so he had just set his people to observing them instead.

At first, Suki and Chiho had visited every single one of those websites they could find, but lately, they had mainly stuck to the largest and most popular of them, Probably because of their newfound friendship with the founder of that site, one miss Lightning Bolt.

Being a concerned and dedicated father, he had demanded to look in on several of those conversations between this person and his daughters. If this was some creep, he would have to block all contact between them and his girls and take steps to remove them from… preferably from existence, but from the streets was also fine.

From what he had seen during those conversations however, nothing strange was going on. Just his daughters happily talking, or 'chatting' as it was called, with who he presumed to be an older woman, about Japan's favourite vigilante and his actions.

Osaki supposed he should just be happy his daughters were doing something relatively innocent. It could have been worse, like doing drugs, or going to parties with strange boys, or, Kami forbid, trying to emulate the vigilante.

The last option in particular was scary to contemplate. After all, it was clear to everyone that his daughters were incapable of pulling off even the least of Rakurai's feats.

Really, staying at home and 'chatting' with innocent older women was just fine as far as rebellious behaviour went, thank you very much.

Still, it was slightly frustrating that his daughters were so obsessed with his nemesis. Shouldn't they be supporting their father instead?

His last and main source of frustration however, and also the one that actually worried him the most of all, was, perhaps unexpectedly, his very own partner; Yomaura Taya.

It wasn't that she herself was being annoying in any way. No, certainly not, he didn't believe she was even capable of purposely being annoying in any way. However, she had been behaving differently lately, strangely even, and Osaki didn't know why.

"Heya Senpai. Would you like a cup of tea before we start the day?"

Speak of the devil and she will appear. Yomaura walked into the living room with two cups of tea the very moment his thoughts shifted to her. She walked with a bounce to her step and a smile on her face, yet she couldn't hide the concern or the tiredness that had been so prevalent in her eyes for the past weeks, and it worried him to no end.

"I already prepared our lunches for on the precinct today." She happily continued, sitting down next to him on the couch. "And when we're back, I'm going shopping with the girls. Would you like to come along? Not that you have to, you have work after all, but perhaps I can give you a hand as well if you need it."

There. That was what he meant with her behaving differently. That incredibly helpful and supportive behaviour, though somewhat appreciated, concerned him a great deal.

Preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for all of them, taking the girls on whatever trips they wanted to go on, taking over his work whenever possible, complimenting him and the girls at every opportunity, making efforts to get closer to them and much more.

His partner was behaving as if she was about to leave them forever, or as if she expected Osaki, Suki and Chiho to kneel over and die. It was as if she believed she would lose them the moment she turned away.

It honestly unnerved him a great deal to see her, the strong and confident woman he knew she was, be so tense.

And as said before, he didn't even know the cause for it. It made him feel utterly helpless, like he was completely failing his partner.

Regardless of his own feelings of inadequacy however, he really couldn't help her if she wouldn't confide in him. He was no mind reader.

It was clear by now though that she wouldn't volunteer the information out of her own volition, so the time had come to give her a little push.

"I would love to come along this afternoon." He answered the question, to the clear joy of his girls, all three of them. "But before we leave for the precinct, I have to ask you something…"

"Yes?" Yomaura asked with a bright smile, prompting him to go on. "I'll answer to the best of my abilities, Senpai."

"…What's wrong with you, Taya?" Osaki continued, trying to keep his voice as light as possible, yet giving her his most concerned look, to prevent any misunderstandings about his intentions.

Yomaura blinked in surprise, looking utterly confused for a few moments, followed by a fraction of a second of horrified understanding, before the smile came back to her face, though it looked far more brittle than before.

"Wrong? What do you mean, Senpai? Nothing is wrong with me." She denied immediately, giving a small laugh as she tried to wave away his concerns.

Osaki wasn't convinced for a moment.

"There is though." Suki suddenly spoke up from where she was sitting at the table, clearly not convinced either by the red-haired woman's words. "You've been acting very strange lately, Yomaura-san. Really nice, but strange."

Osaki mentally fist-pumped at the timely support from his children, their words giving him cause to continue himself.

"You have indeed been unusually nice to the three of us lately, and while it is dearly appreciated, I can't help but feel like you expect us to die at any moment." He said seriously. "Certainly, that is not the case, is it?"

Yomaura's mouth dropped open in shock at his words, before she glanced away for the shortest of moments, guilt shining from her eyes. She turned back just as quickly however, determination immediately taking the place of the guilt as her brows furrowed and her teeth gritted.

"You aren't going to die, Senpai, and neither are Suki and Chiho. I won't allow it!" Yomaura declared, grabbing his hand in hers, tears suddenly threatening to leak from her eyes as every muscle in her body visibly tensed.

It was all Osaki could do to not rear back in shock. He had meant it as an exaggeration, an exaggeration dammit, but Yomaura seemed to believe that their lives were actually in danger. What on Earth could have spooked his normally so composed partner this much?

The girls on their part immediately abandoned their computer and came over to the couch, taking place on either side of the redhead in order to comfort her.

"Of course we aren't going to die." Suki said soothingly, hugging Yomaura's left arm. "Why are you even thinking of such a thing? Did something happen? Is something threatening you? Please, tell us?"

"Yeah." Chiho agreed, hugging the other arm, her own eyes now full of unshed tears. "Taya-obaa-san, please let us help you."

Yomaura stared at them for a moment, her body slowly, but visibly relaxing in the girls' grip, before she closed her eyes and looked down, the tears now actually beginning to stream down her cheeks.

"You three." The half-Irish woman said through her tears, looking up at them again with a much more sincere smile than before. "Thank you. Thank you so, _so_ much, but it's nothing you should concern yourself with. It's just something from my past. Something I thought I'd left behind me but is once more chasing me."

Osaki grimaced at those words and he could see the girls doing the same. Difficult stuff from the past was something they could empathise with very well.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Chiho asked immediately, bless her heart. "Because we would be glad to help you in any way…"

"No." Yomaura denied just as fast. "This is something I have to deal with myself. I don't think you could help me with this anyway, except… well, except if you are willing to take very drastic measures."

The way she drew her finger across her throat was unmistakable.

"Let's avoid those for now." Osaki responded quickly, to the obvious disappointment of his daughters, who had actually seemed to contemplate those drastic measures. "We won't pry anymore, Taya, but know that we are here for you. Should you change your mind about needing help, we will be ready to provide it, right girls?"

"Yes!" Both his daughters cheered.

"I- thank you. All three of you." Yomaura said with a teary smile, quickly wiping her eyes with her sleeves. "You really are the best."

As she spoke those words, Osaki could see the determination in her eyes become even stronger, yet he still did not know what she was so determined about.

He had promised not to pry however, and his job as a detective did not grant him a pass from that. Should it become a problem, he would probably hear of it from Taya herself.

Hopefully.

His partner then cleared her throat. "For now though, your father and I need to go to the precinct for some more hunting, and you two need to go back to miss Lightning Bolt. Who knows what she'll think if you don't respond soon."

"She usually has a lot of patience." Suki answered with a shrug, waving off the warning. "But we might as well answer her if you're leaving anyway. Come on Chiho, let's write our answer."

"Coming, Nee-san."

Giving both Osaki and Yomaura a very big goodbye-hug, with Yomaura even received a kiss on the cheek from them both, the girls were off again, leaving the adults sitting on the couch.

There were many things they could have talked about now, many things that needed to be said between them, but ultimately, that would have to wait. Duty was calling, and it would not be ignored.

Getting up from the couch and grabbing his lunch, Osaki walked to his car alongside Yomaura, in comfortable silence, neither of them needing to say a word, simply content to walk in each other's presence.

For now, everything was alright.

* * *

Shirou had not wasted any time after learning the name of the city the Magi were hiding in. As soon as he and the others had arrived back in Fuyuki-City, he had set his plan into motion.

He had delivered the mercenary to Kotomine's church at once, taking advantage of Sakura returning home right away to catch up on her sleep, leaving him with a free afternoon after he had convinced Taiga he was planning on doing the same as the plum-haired girl.

He had pondered for a while on how to pass his prisoner over to the priest but had eventually settled on just dumping the man on the porch with a note, followed by knocking on the doors.

Shirou trusted the priest to do his job in delivering the mercenary to his superiors. According to his dad, the man was diligent at least, yet he also watched along carefully in case he did not.

It had been a complete oversight on his part to not anticipate Kotomine immediately calling Tohsaka about his new prisoner, leaving him with quite the scare when he had suddenly seen the girl march in his direction. Fortunately, Shirou had remained undiscovered, and was able to confirm that the mercenary had indeed been picked up by other members of the Church.

From what Shirou had been able to overhear while eavesdropping, they planned to deliver the man to the Clocktower, which was precisely according to Shirou's plan.

That evening, he had had dinner again with a well-rested Sakura and Fuji-nee, with twice as much food as usual, on account of them not being able to feed Fuji-nee the previous night.

During the meal, his older sister had happily heaped praise on them for getting their certificates, while he and the plum-haired girl just sat in embarrassed but appreciative silence.

That very same night, after the girls had left, he had made his way over to Hiraizumi, where the Magi were located. It was a rather nice place, if a bit isolated, which was no doubt why it had been chosen as hide-out.

According to Brunevis, the Magi were holed up inside a castle, and fortunately for Shirou, there was only one castle in the entire vicinity of Hiraizumi, standing proudly on top of a hill.

Before he would go there however, he would have to do some reconnaissance first, mainly in the town itself.

It might seem strange to delay his attack while he was almost completely certain that he was at the right place, but Shirou wanted to be absolutely certain. What if he was in fact wrong? Then he would have wrecked someone's home for nothing.

Anyway, he was still planning on striking tonight, as soon as he had finished his scouting and when he had located the traps and other magical defences that were no doubt present there. It would be a bit of a shame if he got this far, only to fail because he was impatient and got caught, killed or delayed long enough for them to escape.

The traps and other magical defences were found easily enough. These were the times that Shirou was really grateful for his sensitivity to Magic.

His reconnaissance seemed simple as well. It was still rather early, so there were enough people out and about at the moment.

Those people were all more than willing to answer his inquiries. Whether their answers were actually helpful, was another matter entirely though.

"They never step out as far as I know, but I must say that it is a damn nice castle. I wouldn't mind living in there."

That wasn't helpful at all. Liking comfort and luxury, as well as being introvert, were hardly traits unique to Magi. Next civilian:

"Don't know about the inhabitants, but sometimes, when I look out of the window when I can't sleep, I can see these large trucks driving through town on their way to the castle, with their drivers being _armed_ , with _guns_. Don't know about the cargo of them trucks though. I want to do something about it too, but seeing those guns scares me something bad. None of my complaints to the police ever yielded results either and I don't dare to do more than that."

A lot more helpful. Either the cargo of those trucks was so valuable that weapons were needed to guard it, or the cargo itself had to be scared into obeying orders. Shirou was willing to bet it was the latter in this case. Next civilian:

"Hallo mister. Uh, I don't know much about the castle. My kaa-san always says I should stay away from it, but eh… please don't tell her, but I didn't listen. Me and my friends used to go there sometimes, but we don't do so anymore after my best friend heard screaming coming from inside. I don't know if it's true, but he really doesn't want to go back there anymore."

Screaming? That was almost a reason in itself to check out the castle.

And so it continued on. The stories often differed in the details, and some people were obviously making things up just to seem interesting, but after a while, Shirou had assembled a somewhat coherent picture.

The people in the castle were very reclusive, they never came to the city for any reason, any invitation to parties or anything similar went completely ignored and no one was ever allowed entrance for any reason whatsoever.

Despite this seeming preference for peace and calm, a number of people from the city had seen highly suspicious activity occurring there, such as the previously mentioned trucks and armed people arriving at night, as well as the earlier reported screaming.

Possibly even more damning was the fact that even the police stood helpless, despite the many complaints that had been filed against the inhabitants of the castle over the years.

Most people suspected bribing, though Shirou thought hypnosis of several high-placed people was a better explanation.

Which was why, after finishing his interrogation-spree, he made his way over to the townhall, in order to have a little meeting with the mayor. He or she should have an idea of what was going on, and even if not, they might know someone else who did.

He, as Shirou, would never just have gotten a meeting with the mayor of course, but a bit of his own hypnosis on the mayor's secretary worked very well in getting him that meeting regardless.

Any guilt he might have felt about hypnotising the 'poor' secretary evaporated once said secretary revealed she had been taking bribes from pretty much everyone in town; to falsify reports, to get people higher on the waiting lists, to get the mayor to ignore certain things, the list went on.

No hypnosis except Shirou's own could be found on her though, and she didn't show any knowledge of the inhabitants of the castle.

"Excuse me, Fujimaru-san? The mayor will see you now." That same secretary then cut through his thought-process, prompting Shirou to save the matter of dealing with her for later.

With a nod and a thanks, Shirou entered the mayor's room, where the man was sitting on his chair, looking as jovial, happy and slightly overweight as a stereotypical mayor was supposed to be.

"Welcome young man." The mayor proclaimed upon seeing Shirou enter. "My secretary insisted that this meeting was of vital importance, so here I am, ready to talk. I do hope it is a little more exciting than the boring meeting I just finished, I might just fall asleep otherwise, haha."

"Don't worry, Mayor-san." Shirou smiled sadly, again feeling bad about what he was about to do, but knowing it was necessary. **"It is."**

Bringing the man under his control was easy enough, and so was interrogating him. It appeared he knew nothing of his secretary's actions and didn't suspect her either, partially because of his crush on her, and partially because he had little to no time left in his schedule to look into such things.

The man was not involved in anything shady or immoral. Not knowingly anyway.

" **Is there anything of note happening in your town? Anything illegal or strange going on?"** Shirou inquired, wishing to know what other information the man could provide, before he started looking for modified memories.

"Nothing's happening at all I'm afraid." The mayor replied instantly. "The town itself is rather quiet and has been so for quite a while. The biggest thing happening here recently is the new Rakurai-worshipping going on among the youth and several elders as well. They seem to hope he will pass by for a visit soon, though I genuinely don't know why a man like that should even bother with a quiet town like this."

" **Rakurai?"** Shirou asked in surprise, feeling slightly embarrassed that he apparently even had fans in places he had never even visited before. **"Do you know anything about him?"**

"Only the basics, what was in the news." The mayor replied, making a dismissive hand-motion. "As well as some more secret details that normal citizens shouldn't know, such as knowing every place where he has struck and who the person in charge of the national investigation is."

" **The person in charge of the national investigation?"** Shirou parroted, feeling a sinking feeling in his stomach at those words. **"Who is that and what do they do?"**

"Well, like I said. That man is in charge of the entire investigation on a national scale, the head, the leader. Every police-officer and detective everywhere have to inform him of every piece of information and evidence they find concerning Rakurai. You know, for more efficiency."

"… **His name?"**

"Right, Osaki Koyo, from the Fuyuki-City law enforcement. He leads the nation-wide hunt for the vigilante."

…

That was… unexpected.

Shirou knew the police had been looking for him, but to have an entire nationwide investigation dedicated just to him was a nasty surprise. He would have to speak with this Osaki Koyo soon, to check on his progress at least.

That matter however was not why he was here. It could wait until he had stormed the castle.

Looking deeper into the man's mind, Shirou indeed found a memory-block, very similar to the ones of the gang-leaders.

" **Do you know anything about the castle on the hill?"** Shirou asked him, without breaking the lock on his memories yet.

"I can't say I know anything." The mayor answered, looking completely sure of himself. "A very mysterious lot lives there, doing strange things apparently, but no matter how much people complain, no one ever looks closer into it."

" **You don't know anything?"** Shirou asked again, upon which he received a shake of the head.

He then promptly broke the memory-block in the man's mind with a small push.

After waiting for a few seconds, during which he saw many emotions flash across the mayor's face as the new memories integrated, he tried again: **"What about now?"**

"Y-Yes, now I remember something." The mayor frowned, clearly confused at suddenly knowing more than a few seconds ago. "Some British guy came to me recently, telling me to alert him at once if anything strange happened in the city. I-I agreed, but I don't remember why I agreed. I don't even know the guy."

" **Do you remember anything about this man?"** Shirou asked sharply, understanding very well what this all meant.

"He looked like the stereotypical British person, and he said his name was Vincent Balefor, with his occupation being a researcher of sorts."

Shirou hesitated for a few seconds, contemplating on asking more about that British man, before deciding that the castle as a whole took precedence over one man.

" **Have you ever been to the castle itself?"** Shirou continued, shelving the matter of the visitor for now. Vincent Balefor was not a name he had heard before, but then again, there were at least five Magi and he only had the name of one of them, now perhaps two of them.

"Y-Yes, I think I have." The mayor continued, looking very surprised again at his own knowledge. "So very strange, I could have sworn I never went there in my life. Anyway, I was there, and I saw… NO!"

The mayor jumped from his chair with a roar, making the thing fall on the ground behind him. His eyes were wide open in shock and his fist were balled, though in nervousness or rage, Shirou couldn't tell.

"I saw people in chains." The man hissed, now definitely enraged. "So many of them, begging their captors for mercy. I recall it now. I wanted to alert everyone, call the police, gather a mob, do anything, but some rat-like man stopped me before I could. He just looked at me and I… just couldn't remember anything, at all. I must do something, right now…"

" **Please Mayor-san, calm down."** Shirou shushed him, pushing him back into the chair he had just put up again. **"I understand your rage, but charging off by yourself will do no good. Let me deal with them instead."**

"Y-You?" The mayor asked, looking shaken again. "W-Well, if you're absolutely sure you can handle it. Please then, end the atrocities that are no doubt happening there. Many innocent lives are in your hands now."

" **I know, Mayor-san."** Shirou said calmly, though he felt the pressure of the man's words. **"Let me handle it. I will leave for the castle now. If anyone asks, we only discussed your secretary and how you are going to have her arrested for corruption."**

"Yes." The mayor agreed once Shirou reapplied the memory-block, with several additions of his own. "She has to go, untrustworthy wench that she is."

"Excellent. Have a pleasant day, mayor-san."

"You as well, young man."

* * *

Matou Zouken, though being someone normally not very prone to excessive emotions, was currently growing angrier every day.

It was shameful for a Magus of his age and experience to lose himself to rage, he knew that, but he just couldn't stop it. Things were just going too badly for him to keep his calm, even with him using every trick in the book to push down his feelings.

The first and most important cause for his anger were his 'precious' wards, both of them, growing bolder and more rebellious by the day. It was subtle, yes, very subtle, but it was definitely there. Fear replaced by annoyance and contempt and apathy replaced by love. _Disgusting_.

That wasn't everything though. He now also had Emiya starting to poke his nose where it didn't belong and Tohsaka starting to actually do her job of watching over Fuyuki-City instead of leaving it to Emiya and the damn priest. Damn youngsters.

Added to that were the continuous deaths of his Worms because of those damned storms. At first, those had only seemed annoying at most, temporarily cutting Zouken's connection with his familiars, but lately, his Worms had actually started succumbing to the stress and pain placed on them by those meteorological horrors.

He was now losing the very things he needed for surveillance and for his own survival, in large numbers, with only the Worms inside the house and within his Bounded Fields spared.

Oh, and also the ones inside Sakura of course, including the most important one of them all. Those were still safe and well.

He didn't fear for those Worms. That important one was hidden at a place where removing it meant Sakura's guaranteed death. No would-be saviour would accept that outcome, and Sakura herself would also protect it, simply by having a sense of self-preservation, so it was a rather good measure, if he did say so himself.

Still, he had a lot of problems to deal with and ever-shrinking resources to use to combat them. He would have to think of something clever soon, or he was going to lose his control over Fuyuki-City before the year was out.

He had better recall all the Worms he had left to his house then. No sense in letting them die uselessly out there. There were other ways of keeping watch over town without using his little bit of life-essence that remained.

* * *

Shirou called upon a thunderstorm with practised ease, making it cover the entire town of Hiraizumi, though the castle on the hill in particular.

It posed no problem for him to do so anymore. He had had more than enough practice with creating storms after all, especially during the last few weeks, where he had been calling upon storms almost every day to deal with those Worms all over the city.

Zouken had the right to keep watch over his own territory, Shirou would not deny him that, but his Worms had no business outside of there. Shirou had thus created those storms and infused them with a bit of the Cleansing Power, a mix that seemed very effective against the little critters, especially when he brought down some lightning on them. The old Magus now could either recall them, or lose them.

Back to business, he was still standing in the city itself, though hidden in an alley, wearing his vigilante apparel and thus melting into the shadows. He was planning on donning his armour as soon as he was out of Hiraizumi, but it would attract too much attention for now.

The reason for not summoning the thunderstorm once he was close to the castle itself, which might have seemed more practical than summoning it while still in town, was that he wasn't sure the Magi wouldn't notice him throwing around such large amounts of power, so he had kept a reasonable distance.

No sense in giving himself away before his attack had even begun after all.

Anyway, from his alley, he heard many exclamations of surprise from the people still on the streets, who were now caught out in the open by his thunderstorm.

They all seemed to be heading for cover now, most likely in order to wait out the rain. Not that it would stop anytime soon, Shirou would see to that.

With the storm now going strong, Shirou launched himself into the sky, counting on the rain and the darkness to keep him hidden from any eyes that might be looking up for some reason.

Flying fast, it was only minutes later that he arrived within a hundred metres of the castle, where he could feel the presence of the first Bounded Field. One meant to warn the owner of anyone crossing the borders.

Dismissing the projected vigilante clothing and materialising his Mjolnir-granted armour took seconds at most, leaving him as prepared as could be.

With a deep breath, Shirou held Mjolnir out in front of him, channelling the mysterious power through the hammer as he stretched the arm holding Mjolnir forward while the other was held against his body, flying straight at the Bounded Field.

It shattered upon impact, the conceptual weight of his attack too much for it to bear. Shirou could feel the entire Field collapse in an instant as he came down on the ground in a superhero landing.

For a few seconds afterwards, nothing seemed to happen, before every defensive measure seemed to activate at once.

His attack on the castle had begun, and his opponents were ready to meet him.

* * *

Oliver Waudenstad was an old and fat man, who was long past his, rather meagre, glory days and possessed a generic back-story no one cared about, not even the man himself if he was very honest.

For all that young Balefor kept going on about Magus-superiority, Waudenstad knew that he was rather pathetic all things considered, and that there were plenty of mundane people that were his superiors in just about every aspect of life.

He came from a very Rune-orientated family of full-blooded Magi, with a lineage dating back for centuries. Nevertheless, his family did not possess a Crest, and neither did they possess the means or knowledge to create or obtain one.

Which was in fact the main reason his family was so focused on Runes, to the extent that all other types of Magecraft had to take a backseat. Even those family-members that lacked any sort of interest in the Craft had to take it up, because at least in that field, they could preserve their knowledge for future generations.

Waudenstad had realised very soon that his parents cared more about Runes than about him, that his other family-members cared more about Runes than about him, and that his friends and clients cared more about Runes than him.

Most shockingly however, was the fact that deep inside, in a dark corner of his mind, he had to admit that _he_ cared more about Runes than himself. Of course, he had laughed himself into unconsciousness upon realising this.

So, as any person would do in his situation, he had thrown himself into his research, his only light in the dark, fully intend on studying and understanding Runes to the highest extent, to give his life at least some meaning.

He had used all means possible, without any regard for morality or any kind of laws, which had eventually, through a set of happenings that were of no importance now, led to him becoming a Sealing Designee after he was caught carving forbidden Runes onto his grand-niece's body.

Becoming a Sealing designee hadn't been much of a problem for him honestly. He had simply left for Japan with his old friend Richard Burgon and set up shop there, living the good life, far out of the reach of the Clocktower.

He almost wished he had known sooner that it would simplify matters so much. He would have left for the Far-East years earlier if he had.

Their little scheme to use the gangs of this backwards country to obtain research-specimens had been a stroke of brilliance, if Waudenstad did say so himself. Even though the study of Runes did not require a lot of test-subjects, it still needed a few, and the rest could be sold at the black market for incredibly amounts of money.

Still, their surplus had just kept on growing.

Burgon and he had eventually concluded they had room for more people in their little group. Other Magi that wanted to free themselves from the constraints of the Clocktower and wanted to conduct their experiments in peace could be recruited.

Meire and Alva had arrived a little while later, having been cast out by their families for researching Dead Apostles. It was not a field Waudenstad had any experience in whatsoever, but he had heartedly encouraged the younger Magi regardless.

Those two were exactly what Burgon and he had been looking for. Smart, driven, ambitious, yet also loyal to the group that had provided them with protection and opportunities.

Recruitment had been a resounding success, one they had attempted to repeat, by inviting a young, but very talented man into their group. Granted, he was a murderer, a kinslayer even, but Burgon and Waudenstad had assumed they could keep him in line.

But then young Balefor had actually arrived, and Waudenstad had wondered if they hadn't been a little too optimistic in sending that boy an invitation as well.

Granted, he was very good at making Chimaeras and at working with all kinds of living things, but his obsession with making Crests out of basic materials seemed a tiny bit delusional, not to mention wasteful of his actual talents.

That was not even touching on the fact that the boy never once bothered to form any kind of connection with any of them, instead choosing to view them as his benefactors and employers only. It was slightly unnerving even to see him skulk through the dark hallways all the time.

But the boy should be free to pursue his dreams, even if he was a little off. As long as he filled his quota of making useful things, he was allowed to chase after Crests and behave as detached and anti-social as he wanted.

He might even have found some success in making a Crest. If that had been the case somewhere in the future, Waudenstad would have gone down on his knees and apologised for every doubt he ever had in the boy, before ordering a Crest for himself.

They hadn't recruited anyone else after young Balefor, by lack of suitable candidates, but it had hardly been needed. They had all the talent they could ever want. Life had been good for a while, just the five of them living the dream, doing what they wanted.

But all good things had to come to an end, as a wise man once said, and that end had arrived now, in the form of an armour-wearing, hammer-wielding monster of a _boy_ , who was smashing his way through Bounded Fields, traps and Chimaeras alike like they were mere sheets of paper.

Waudenstad had send his familiars outside at once when he had felt the first Bounded Field go down in less than a second, expecting a small army of Enforcers standing at their doorstep.

Instead, he had seen the aforementioned hammer-wielding monster making its way past all defences, barely granting them more than a glance as he brute-forced himself a way to the castle.

Now, Waudenstad was very well aware that there were beings out there that could do such a thing. Barthomeloi and her ilk were renowned for their power, Zelretch would not even notice their feeble attempts at keeping him out and the Apostle Ancestors would just laugh.

It made no sense at all for any of those beings to be attacking them though. The latter two would not care at all, while Barthomeloi could never just leave for a country like Japan without everyone in the Moonlit World hearing of it.

This person was clearly a new player on the field.

That weapon by the way was also quite interesting. Despite having known that he was wasting precious time, Waudenstad couldn't help but try to get a closer look at it.

With the help of his most inconspicuous familiars, he had gotten his closer look, seeing the Runes that seemed carved in the… hammer.

Fortunately, Runes were Waudenstad's expertise, so he had been able to try his hand at translating.

He didn't have the best visuals, and he didn't recognise most of the Runes for some reason, but what he had seen painted a very bad picture.

' _Lift' 'Worthy' 'Thor'_

Those were the words of which he was sure about the meaning, and they terrified him.

He didn't know if the mention of Thor was bluffing, blustering or complete truth, but judging by the lightning bolts that were being thrown around, the comparison wasn't based on nothing.

It was quite clear that fighting was useless, and that resistance was futile. Even if the intruder wasn't in the weight class of the aforementioned truly powerful beings, they were clearly too strong for Waudenstad and his fellows to defeat.

They would have to flee.

He had immediately informed his companions, hoping against hope that they would all stick together. It was not to be though, as everyone promptly ran off on their own without care for each other, save for Meire and Alva who had stuck together like glue all the way to their room.

As expected, not a single one of them was interested in working together to resist the attack or flee in an orderly fashion. It was every man and woman for themselves now, as could be expected of Sealing Designees like themselves.

For all that they worked together in peaceful times, it was nothing but logical that they would abandon each other once it become difficult.

Waudenstad let out a dry laugh. "Birds of a feather flock together, until the cat comes." He remarked.

An old truism that was proven correct once again.

Oh, the attacker had breached the gate of the castle already. Such incredible speed.

Waudenstad himself sprinted as fast as his feet could carry him, which wasn't very fast, towards his own Workshop, as he had several things that he still needed to take care of before he would allow himself to be found by the attacker.

As said before, he was old and fat, without any sort of fighting-prowess or even the physical condition to exert himself in any meaningful way for more than a minute. His Runes wouldn't help him either, as none of them were fit for attacking. He was completely helpless here, without means for attacking or fleeing.

Without his companions here to aid him, the only possibility for him was either surrender, which meant torture and imprisonment, or something a lot more drastic.

Running into his private space, he hastily collected all of his research into a map and tidied his Workshop a bit, before grabbing a sheet of paper and a pen. Sitting down at his desk, he wrote a quick note for the attacker.

After that, he poured himself a glass of his best whisky and downed it in one shot. Then he poured himself another glass and another, until the bottle was half-empty. The bottle was then put down next to the note.

In an impulse, he also activated every single Bounded Field around his room. No sense in making it too easy for the intruder to enter his Workshop.

Then, as his last action, he reached into his secret drawer and pulled out a pill. Without another word, he put the pill into his mouth and bit on it, hearing it crack under the pressure of his teeth.

And as the world grew dark around him, Waudenstad felt… well, not at peace, but better than he had expected.

* * *

Shirou was breaking into the castle with almost insulting ease.

Granted, these Bounded Fields were rather low in quality, probably meant for mundane people instead of other Magi, but still, his targets could easily have made something better if they had just put in slightly more work.

As they were now however, they were easily destroyed with a swing of Mjolnir or a burst of power in one form or another. Some of them he could even just ignore completely.

The traps that had been placed, all of them magical in nature, were easily detected with his nose and either avoided or destroyed as well with a well-placed Rune or burst of lightning.

The few Runes that he encountered on the way were of course the easiest to deal with.

Shirou was making excellent time and he should reach the castle in just under three minutes if he continued as he had, hopefully fast enough to stop the Magi from getting away through a secret passage or something.

It was when he heard a growl though that the red-haired Magus paused in his rampage, stopping his advance to see where the sound had come from. Most likely a guard dog of some kind…

Then Shirou laid eyes on the source of the growl, and his entire body went stiff with shock and anger.

It was a Chimaera!

An assembly of body parts from various animals, all mashed and stitched together to form a mockery of life, something that could only serve its master. A tortured cumulation of Souls and parts that probably wished for death with every breath it took.

Kiritsugu had never hidden his distaste for the practice of making and using Chimaeras, as he considered it pointless animal-cruelty and very wasteful to boot. It was one of the few things he had truly forbidden Shirou from ever using.

A regular Chimaera would have been bad enough, but what Shirou saw before him was not just a regular Chimaera, but a Chimaera with human body parts thrown into the mix.

The human face, still contorted in fear and pain, was clearly visible in the light of the moon, even if it had been mixed with dog teeth and cat eyes.

The Chimaera was not alone either. With his enhanced eyes, Shirou spotted far more shapes moving along the walls and over the gardens, all of them possessing at least one body part of a human.

How many people had been viciously torn apart to create this horde? How many men and women had died horrible deaths to sate the bloodlust and curiosity of these monsters in their castle?

Shirou couldn't even begin to guess the number. It probably didn't even end with these Chimaeras. Had he not encountered that Dead Apostle made by these monsters? How many people had died to make that possible?

He had known of course that countless people had likely died over the years that the Magi had been running their cruel scheme, that was almost inevitable, considering the purpose those people had been abducted for, but to have it shoved into his face like this made him angry all over again.

Shirou rose Mjolnir, lightning already crackling along the hammer, ready to smite everything in front of him. He knew that these people and animals were long gone, most of their Souls having moved on to Akasha, only some agonised shards remaining. The only thing he could do for them was ending their suffering and avenging their deaths.

The first Chimaera, perhaps sensing the danger it was in, yipped nervously, before jumping at Shirou and lashing out in what was presumably fear.

The Chimaera never came down from its jump again, as Shirou dodged the swipe of the claw and swung the hammer into its side, blasting it to smoking pieces.

Shirou took a deep breath in an attempt to calm his anger. One down, a hundred to go.

And then the Magi would _pay_ for this.

* * *

Richard Burgon was a man who was used to having things go his way. He liked being in control and usually was, unless people like Emiya Kiritsugu or Lorelei Barthomeloi were around of course.

He had been born as the second son of a third branch of the Burgon-family, never intended for greatness or fame, but supposed to just muddle through life as best as he could. Contribute a bit to the family's honour, gain some knowledge, things like that.

Naturally, he hadn't accepted that. He wouldn't have been here, in this castle, if he had accepted it lying down.

He had done his best as a child and teenager to rise above what was expected of him, experimenting in many different branches and subjects, yet never finding something he was really interested in. He just couldn't seem to get through the beginning stages, no matter what he tried.

He had even played around with the idea of joining a Grail War to gain some fame, before discarding that idea upon hearing both Emiya Kiritsugu and Kayneth El-Melloi were on the list of participants. He didn't have a death wish after all.

It was when he got appointed as the head of a team of researchers however that he actually found something that made his blood pump like nothing else: Managing others.

Most people hated the paperwork, the stress, and the constant soothing and managing of egos that came with having any sort of leading position in the Moonlit World, but Burgon loved it to pieces.

By the age of twenty, he was already running a fairly impressive network of people mutually benefitting from each other, exchanging information with each other and generally being useful to themselves and others.

That was where Burgon's skills laid, helping others achieve their potential and connecting them with each other, leading them with a gentle hand.

Too bad though that a second son of a third branch would never be allowed to hold any sort of real power in an environment like the Clocktower. It was all fine as long as he played around in the small leagues, but he was stopped long before he could amass any real influence or authority, every single time.

Eventually, when his dearest friend Oliver Waudenstad had been Sealed for his, well, not-exactly-legal experiments, Burgon had seen his chance to get out of this stifling environment and had accompanied Oliver to Japan, where they had started over.

Now finally released from his leash-holders at the Clocktower, Burgon had been free to build his network, make contacts, manage everyone who worked on the wrong side of the law, and much more.

He had been completely in his element, with people around him who followed his orders and with contacts that gladly took his advice on many subjects and fields.

In some way, they could be considered one big family.

Which made it a little painful to see the other four run off on their own as soon as Oliver had alerted them of the intruders, and his contacts shutting of their means of communication with him the moment he told them he was compromised.

It would seem his thoughts of family were just the delusions of an old man then.

He wasn't angry at the betrayals of those around him, merely sad. To see the people whom he had worked so hard for abandon him without a shred of hesitation, it made him feel… empty.

He no longer had any delusions however. His empire had fallen, and he was too old to ever even dream of building it up again.

The only thing left to him right now was to go and face these attackers with all the dignity he could muster, and then die in the fight. Perhaps he could even get answers to several questions he was harbouring while he was at it.

Burgon hurried towards the walls above the gate, going in the complete opposite direction of the others. Once there, he looked down at the yard before the castle, only to behold an amazing and terrifying sight.

One attacker was breaching their Wards and avoiding their traps, which was already incredible, but it was the sheer display of power that really almost stopped the old Magus' heart.

Chimaera's, dozens of them, were throwing themselves against the armoured form of the attacker, their claws out, their teeth bared and their eyes and postures full of rage and absolute discard for their own lives.

Even in his wildest dreams, Burgon wouldn't have expected such reckless abandon and feral aggression from young Vincent's creations. It was as if the boy had managed to capture the very essence of a true Berserker.

This all paled however, in comparison to the intruder themselves.

He or she was swinging around an indiscernible weapon with reckless abandon, the weapon itself coated in blue lightning, radiating overwhelming power that felt oppressive even from where Burgon was standing.

Every swing sent multiple Chimaeras flying through the air in half-burned pieces, along with creating powerful gusts of wind that upended large swaths of earth. The lightning bolts were springing forth in every direction, though mainly at the surrounding guard-beasts.

The intruder's free hand meanwhile was casting Runes at everything that moved, someone without the use of a medium, sending bursts of flames, gales of wind, sprouts of water and chunks of rock flying at their enemies, sometimes forgoing magic all together and just punching a Chimaera in range, the blow enough to kill the unfortunate beast instantly.

This… this was something he would expect from an Apostle Ancestor, from Barthomeloi when she was in one of her mood-swings, from Zelretch himself even, not from a random Enforcer or Executor.

What on Earth was attacking their castle right now?

Whatever it was, Burgon knew he stood no chance against it in conventional battle. Trickery was needed here if he wanted to survive for even a few seconds.

His previous idea of dying with dignity was completely forgotten. Never mind how old he was, he wanted to live on, to not get captured by whatever that was. He had to delay it somehow and get out of the castle as soon as he could.

Seeing the attacker rapidly approach the gate, not hindered in the slightest even by the lethal defences they had painstakingly put up closer to the walls, Burgon ran down the stairs again and made his way over to that gate.

Just as he rounded the corner in the hall, the gate, the hard-wooden, iron-and-magic-reinforced gate, was smashed of its hinges and reduced to pieces, seemingly in one blow, with… a rather small hammer?

Yes, Burgon confirmed for himself, blinking once. The weapon that had caused the immense destruction he had just seen outside, turned out to be nothing more than an oversized hobbyist-tool.

It would almost have been comical, if said weapon wasn't clearly so powerful.

Then Burgon's eyes went from the weapon to its wielder, and he once more froze in fear.

Baleful golden eyes stared at him from a face half-hidden by a mask. Glittering armour with blue lines across the surface covered the entire body and a similar helmet was set upon the head of the attacker. Power was rolling off them in waves, the static electricity almost unbearable.

Was it just him though, or did the attacker indeed stand at least one head smaller than Burgon himself?

Japanese no doubt.

Which only made this worse.

"Who are you?" Burgon called out, sounding far braver than he felt, starting to activate several previously installed Runic arrays with his hands behind his back. "What are you doing here?"

"…" The figure didn't react at first, simply staring at Burgon instead, before the slightly muffled voice actually sounded at last. "My name is of no importance to you. I am only here to put an end to the atrocities you are committing."

"W-Why?" Burgon asked, almost dumbstruck. "What concern is it of you what we do here? Why would you care about what your fellow Magi do?"

"I am here to rescue the innocent people you abducted for your experiments, as well as making sure you pay for the crimes you have committed."

What? What kind of utter nonsense…?

"Innocent people? Crimes? You mean us grabbing those insects from the streets for our magnificent research? Allowing them to participate in a purpose far greater than anything they could have ever achieved themselves? Those aren't crimes. We are doing nothing but using the means available to us to make progress on our projects. I mean, who cares anyway?"

"I do."

A… hero?

He was standing in front of a _hero_? This guy wasn't attacking them for their research, for their money, for cashing in on their bounties, for revenge or because they were on his turf, but because he wanted to be a _hero_?

"Pfft, Ah, hahahahahahahaha!" Burgon laughed aloud, though he never took his eyes of his opponent. "Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"Some goody-two shoes. Oh my God, what a joke." Burgon giggled, finally getting the worst of his laughter under control. "Such power, and you are a goody-two shoes."

"Call me whatever you want, but I'm ending this here, tonight."

"Because you are more powerful than us, right?" The old Magus suddenly sneered, feeling his humour make place for anger. "You think you can just enforce your rules on us…"

"I enforce only the laws and the rules of morality." The attacker cut him off. "I have long since gotten past any moral dilemma about exerting power over others. You are doing evil, so you must be stopped."

"But why?" Burgon repeated. "Why would you care about people so far below you? It would be one thing if you wanted something from us, or if you lived for the thrill of battle even, but why are the mundane so important to you?"

There was silence for a few heartbeats, before the attacker let out a sigh. "It is not something I would expect you to understand, but I feel the innocent must be protected. People like your victims must be saved whenever it is possible. And… I must repent for crimes of my own."

…This guy, with his immense power, really was some kind of hero. Burgon didn't understand, and he doubted he wanted to understand. The explanation he received wasn't worth anything anyway.

Now, there was nothing more to gain from continuing this conversation. The defences in the hallway had been activated in full and it was time to blow this vigilante away.

"Even with all of your power, you are still weak." The old man proclaimed. "And that is why you will fail."

With that, he activated every last spell in the hallway.

* * *

Shirou had fully expected an attack after his conversation with the old Magus was finished, so when the spells suddenly started coming down, he wasn't surprised in the slightest.

The conversation itself was predictable as well, pretty much consisting exactly of what his dad had said it would consist of. A Magus expressing his disbelief over Shirou helping people who could be considered 'beneath him'.

He had succinctly explained his reasoning for wanting to save everyone, but he hadn't bothered on the details. A Magus like the one in front of him would never understand anyway, so why waste words when there were other Magi still on the run?

The defences that were suddenly activated were quite impressive however, both in complexity and in visual effects, though he couldn't stick around for too long to watch, as he could see the old Magus running away.

The bursts of fire were easily ignored, the gales of wind easily dodged, the sudden spell meant to pin him in place and paralyse him was simply overcome by brute force, and his Magic resistance easily dealt with any Magecraft targeting him directly, such as organ-rupturing spells, skin-flaying spells and several versions of a Rune he recognised as ' _Laguz'_ , the Rune of illness, despair and madness.

All those defences and many more he couldn't discern at present were thrown around, seemingly more every second, yet with Runes and rapid usage of Mjolnir's ability to block Magical effects, Shirou got through it without a hitch.

The hallway, not so much. The walls now had massive holes, the ceiling was partially collapsed and the gate could never be repaired again.

After passing the dangerous part of the hallway, Shirou broke out into a sprint, rapidly catching up with the old Magus whose scent he could still smell quite clearly.

Said Magus clearly wasn't very talented at the use of Reinforcement or any similar spells, as he ran barely faster than ordinary criminals would. As such, it only took the golden-eyed teen a second or two to catch up to the man.

The Magus then proved however that his perception was a great deal higher than the normal crooks Shirou was used to dealing with, who couldn't even see him move, as he managed to actually follow Shirou's movements with his eyes, even if he was unable to avoid being pushed to the ground.

As a last-ditch effort, the Magus grabbed a gem from his pocket and threw it at Shirou, forcing the redhead to jump back he be caught in the effects.

After having learned what Tohsaka was capable of with those gems of her, he wasn't exactly eager to experience such effects himself, even if his Magic Resistance was probably high enough to negate or at least largely deter those effects.

As it turned out however, the result was nothing more than an explosion that barely cracked the stone of the walls and floor. Not even a single esoteric effect or anything.

Seeing this, Shirou felt more confident in approaching the man again. Another gem was thrown, but Shirou, feeling that intimidation was perhaps in place here, simply swatted it to the side, before completely ignoring the rather small explosion. Something that clearly boggled the Magus' mind.

"Wha-? How are you-? This can't be-?" The man brabbled, appearing utterly surprised that his little trap and his gems had failed. He seemed completely shocked senseless, not even resisting when Shirou picked him up at the throat.

" **Who are you?"** Shirou asked once he had the man at eye-height, channelling the mysterious power again in an effort to hypnotise the man. **"Where are the other Magi in this castle?"**

"I… I am… Rich-Richard Burgon. I-I-I… NO!" The man seemed to fall under Shirou's hypnosis at first, but managed to push it off after that one sentence, proving that enough willpower could negate the effects. "You can't hypnotise fellow Magi, did no one ever tell you that? Fool, you might have caught me, but you'll never…"

Shirou cut him off with a blow to the back of the head, knocking him out, before quickly putting him into his pocket dimension and continuing on his way. He had wasted enough time.

Following his nose for a minute, the red-haired Magus arrived at a room with a closed door, with several defensive spells laid over it. Shirou had seen all of them already at the gate however, and bluntly destroyed them and the door with a blow of Mjolnir.

What he saw inside, was both expected and unexpected.

The operation tables with bloodstains, the many knifes, and the jars with unidentifiable objects were expected, just like the many pieces of paper laying scattered everywhere. The usual stuff one would find in a Magus' Workshop really, along with unsavoury elements that perfectly fitted these Magi in particular.

The dead man in the corner of the room was _not_ expected however.

The man was seated on a chair, with his head resting on the desk in front of him, wearing a lab coat and glasses. The face was turned towards Shirou, allowing him to see the foam around the man's lips, as well as the strained muscles around the eyes, which told Shirou everything he needed to know.

The Magus had committed suicide by poison, using cyanide or something similar most likely. Probably to escape capture.

Shirou frowned for a moment, but ultimately, he didn't really feel anything about this. This man, just like Oni, had not been innocent or in any way redeemable. If it had been his choice to kill himself, then that was that.

Shirou also noticed a very full map and a note next to the body, but he decided to save those two for later.

Sprinting out of the room, he once more caught a scent coming from close-by, two scents actually.

Following his nose, while avoiding or powering through any traps and defences on his way, he eventually reached yet another room. This one however, though it had a closed door, did not have any active Magical defences around it.

Shirou promptly kicked in said door, hearing voices cry out in shock, before dodging two spells that had been aimed right at him from inside.

Running inside, Shirou was faced with two more Magi, these ones clearly Southern-European in heritage.

"I suppose I can't convince you to surrender?" Shirou opened the conversation, hoping against hope for a peaceful resolution, yet still preparing himself for imminent combat.

"Knowing what will happen to us if we do?" The man snarled, grabbing a stone with a Rune carved on it in each hand, while the woman aimed several pre-charged spells at him. "Forget it, bounty-hunter."

With that, the attacks were launched towards Shirou, who, again with laughable ease, simply batted them aside with Mjolnir, trusting his partner to be able to handle it. The spells faded out, but the stones caused considerable explosions, destroying portions of the walls.

Showing themselves slightly more experienced than the previous Magus, the two in front of him didn't bother with surprise, instead immediately activating a solid barrier between Shirou and themselves, basically dividing the Workshop in two, before grabbing the suitcases they had been packing and making a run for it, towards another exit leading out of their Workshop.

Not wanting to lose even more time and seeing that the barrier had clearly been very hasty and shoddy work, Shirou coated his fist in lightning and smashed it to pieces.

Moving quickly, Shirou cut off their escape route by placing himself before the door, facing the Magi again, who looked at him with… not fear, he noticed with surprise, but awe and envy instead.

"So it is actually possible to reach such a level of power, even in the Modern Age." The woman breathed. "Truly, we are blessed to see one of your skill in action."

"Indeed, thank you for showing us this." The man agreed, looking equally in awe.

Shirou himself however just raised an eyebrow. Had these people never heard of figures like Lorelei Barthomeloi, Aozaki Aoko, and Zelretch? Or even people several ranks below them? He was quite sure he hadn't done anything they couldn't easily do as well.

Shirou's contemplations were broken however when the man suddenly opened a cage standing in the corner of the room, from which several of the Dead started to emerge!

"What is this?" Shirou asked sharply, only to receive a giggle in return.

"Just the result of our experiments." The woman smirked. "We even managed to create a true Dead Apostle you know, even if it was almost by accident. Shame though that it escaped before we could even begin to study it. Who knows where it is now?"

Dead. Killed by Shirou in fact, after it had killed dozens of people itself.

Shirou could see now, even clearer than before, that these people had no conscience or mercy. In their hearts, there was nothing but selfishness and cruelty. They had to be stopped at all costs.

Without another word, Shirou shot a blast of the Cleansing Power at the Dead, not even breaking eye-contact with the Magi as he did so.

As expected of a power that purged everything that Shirou considered to be unnatural, it instantly destroyed the Dead, reducing them to ash, and the golden-eyed hero-in-training couldn't help but slightly enjoy the expressions of the faces of his opponents.

"Y-Y-You! Damn you to hell!" The woman cried, before opening her jacket, revealing more pre-charged spells, which she promptly used to bring down a bombardment on Shirou's position.

Not really seeing anything dangerous among the spells, which were mostly of the elemental kind, Shirou nevertheless used a basic shielding Rune to mitigate the worst of it.

At the same time however, the man ran straight at him, having brandished a rather beautiful katana, a Mystic Code, that had the ability to cut through Magically reinforced material at the cost of being less effective against mundane objects.

The man, whose name was Allesandro Alva apparently, had stolen the sword from Frank Falworn, a renowned Mystic Code-producer, before fleeing his home country of Spain after being cast out of his family.

…What?

Shirou almost recoiled in surprise, at a loss as to how he suddenly knew all that, while an almost perfect copy of the sword materialised on the slopes of a hill deep inside his very being.

Resolving to figure it out later, Shirou engaged Alva, quickly slapping the sword to the side before, softly, elbowing him in the stomach.

Alva went down with a pained grunt, letting go of the weapon immediately. The woman cried in concern as she saw him fall, before glaring at Shirou and ripping off her dress, tearing it to little pieces after she'd taken it off her body.

Shirou blushed at the sight of the woman standing in only her underwear, but the reason for her action became clear when he saw the Runes on the pieces of cloth.

"Just something I created in case of a situation like this." The woman said, pressing the pieces together and using Alteration to make a ball out of them, before throwing it at him, the ball exploding soon after.

It might have seemed like a foolish action to set of explosions so close to oneself, until one realised that the blast that came out was only aimed at Shirou, and not at her.

How she had accomplished this, Shirou didn't know, but it mattered little. Holding his arms in front of his face, he braced himself, weathering the explosion as if they were a wave at the beach, even as the ground around him was broken to pieces.

It did not end with the explosions however. The moment those stopped and the smoke was the only thing that remained, Alva suddenly came running towards Shirou, having taken off his shirt, also littered with Runes, and holding it in front of him.

"Got you now!" He cried in triumph.

Shirou's eyes widened as he recognised the binding-Runes in the array on the shirt. The man clearly meant to trap Shirou with it so that they could gain the time to get away.

Seeing the man almost be upon him, Shirou didn't think, he just acted, taking a step forward and slashing down with the katana he suddenly held in his hand, cutting through the cloth as if it weren't even there.

…

All three froze, their gazes simultaneously moving from the katana still laying on the ground to the one in Shirou's hand, the two being identical for all intents and purposes.

Even Shirou himself, the one who had projected the weapon, was momentarily in shock, wondering just how he had done so. To the best of his knowledge, projecting Mystic Codes with such accuracy was supposed to be impossible.

Quick footsteps drew his attention back to his opponents, and Shirou raised Mjolnir again as he dismissed the katana, getting ready for combat.

It turned out not to be necessary anymore however, as neither Magi made another move.

"Well, that was just about everything we had." The woman confessed, looking a little lost. "That was meant to deal with, like, twelve men, more even, but you just ignored it."

"If this was everything, are you willing to surrender now?" Shirou asked, slightly more hopeful they would. That hope sunk though, when Alva shook his head.

"We will not be taken prisoner. We refuse to let ourselves become trophies or test subjects." He said, before he and the woman held up their hands, both revealing rings with Runes carved in them. "Allow us to end this now. Farewell, intruder."

Shirou crouched slightly, his weapon coming up again. If these Magi were so confident those spells would end the battle, even after seeing him in action just now, they must be quite impressive. Better be prepared for everything.

Despite his caution though, Shirou found himself completely caught off guard when the Magi suddenly aimed their rings… _at each other!_

"What are you…?" Shirou yelled, launching himself forward to prevent the spells from activating, but despite his speed, he didn't make it in time.

The Runes flashed, beams of light were shot, and the Magi fell backwards, all perfectly symmetrical, while Shirou stepped in-between them a fraction of a second too late to stop what was happening.

For a moment, the red-haired Magus stood frozen, two dead bodies on either side of him. Their chests slashed open, their throats slid, and their heads caved in by their own spells

He felt some sadness over the preventable deaths, but ultimately not much. Moping over something like this would do no good after all.

That removed another two Magi from the equation. Three dead, one captured, and, judging from the smells, only one still at large.

Hopefully, he could change that into another capture, instead of a casualty.

* * *

Running. He was running and he wasn't going to stop.

He had called it, he had so called it, the previous day already. No, longer even. He had known from the very beginning that they had been overstepping their bounds by going after a fellow Magus, even if it was an Asian Hedge-Mage without influence, friends, or family.

Why had he never said anything? Had he been overcome by greed? Had he perhaps been subjected to peer-pressure? Was he simply not in tune with himself enough to understand what his gut had been telling him?

Regardless, he hadn't said anything, and now they paid the price.

In all honesty, Balefor had no clue what was going on at the moment. He only knew that he was going to get out of the castle as fast as he could and hope that the intruders were delayed enough by the others to miss him getting away.

In a corner of his mind, he felt a bit guilty about leaving them like that, but he reasoned that they were no doubt attempting the same, so the guilt was easily suppressed.

On his way to one of the secret tunnels, he had stopped at his Workshop to quickly grab as much of his research as he could carry, something he had mixed feelings about.

On one hand, he really didn't want to repeat everything he had done from the very beginning, so he needed to take his papers with him, but on the other hand, it had cost him precious minutes he could probably hardly afford to lose.

When the entrance of the secret tunnel came in sight however, he could only be glad that he had made that little stop. Clearly, it hadn't cost him his head…

'SWOOSH'

Hearing something come at him from behind at high speeds, Balefor threw himself to the side, expecting it to be something very painful and debilitating. Most likely a spell or a knife or something.

To his surprise however, it turned out to be a rather small hammer, one that flew high above the place where his head would have been if he hadn't jumped out of the way. It would never have hit him like that.

His confusion about the very poor-seeming throw turned to horror however, when the hammer continued its flight and struck the wall above the entrance with such force that the tunnel promptly collapsed, cutting off his escape-route.

The deceptively small weapon then suddenly flew back, disappearing behind Balefor's back with another swishing sound.

The Magus jerked his neck around with an audible crack, the rest of his body following a moment later, as he finally laid eyes on his pursuer.

An armoured figure stood several dozen yards behind him, the hammer now held in an outstretched hand, clearly having returned there moments ago. The armour and helmet looked very high in quality, clearly they were extremely well-made Mystic Codes, making the mask appear rather poor in comparison.

If the armour and helmet were intimidating however, then the figure's aura could only be called terrifying. The sheer pressure was enough to almost force Balefor to his knees.

Those eyes however, those golden eyes with the blue flashes, were the worst of all, pinning him in place with a glare that seemed to cut to the very inside of his Soul.

If this guy was here now, did that mean that the others…

"You really are the last of them." The figure mused aloud, confirming Balefor's suspicions and making his heart sink into his stomach. "They all told me nothing useful. I suppose you won't tell me anything either?"

"N-No, of course not." Balefor proclaimed, internally wincing at the stutter. "I am not so weak that I would spill everything merely because you look at me crossly. Why don't you call your friends here and take me down for the torture you are no doubt planning. If you want me to tell you anything, you better bring everything you have."

"I am alone actually, and I do not plan on torturing anyone." The figure huffed. "But I will indeed take you down now. Please, do not die on me."

Balefor blinked once when the figure emitted a gust of wind, shutting his eyes for but half-a-second, yet when he opened them again, the figure was already in front of him.

Poor Balefor didn't even have time to be surprised before a backhand sent him sprawling to the ground, his head feeling like someone had split it open with an axe.

Dammit, he had to defend himself, he had to get up. He would show that intruder just who he was messing with.

Only, even if he had been able to get up right now, he had nothing in his arsenal that would be enough to take this guy down. The only things he had were basic Runes and a few curses, and he could tell that the intruder wasn't going to be very impressed by that.

He was going to die, and his opponent would no doubt relish in it.

When he was grabbed at the throat and lifted up however, the Magus could almost swear he saw a trace of relief in those baleful eyes. What did that guy have to be relieved about though?

" **Who are you?"** The figure then began, his voice reverberating with…something. **"Why are you here in this castle?"**

"I-I-I am Vincent… Balefor." The Magus ground out, not entirely understanding why but feeling like the man in front of him had to know that. "I-I am h-here b-b-because I got a S-Sealing D-Designation and t-the E-Enforcers are after m-m-m-me…"

Why was he telling this to the figure? Why was he talking after having sworn not to do that?

It was probably because the figure was his good… his g-good friend.

Except he was no friend! He was an enemy!

With a shock, Balefor realised that he was somehow being hypnotised at the very moment. This guy was trying to break into his mind and force him to obey.

"NO! W-What are you doing to me?" Balefor yelled, frantically struggling against the figure's grip, yet failing to even make him loosen his hold. "Get out of my head! Hypnosis doesn't work on Magi! Who are you even?!"

"It seems to work reasonably well though." The figure remarked. "Though not anymore perhaps, and I am loathe to completely break people's minds, so I'll just find the answers myself."

Find the answers himself? Working reasonably well?

"What the fu-" Was everything he got out before the vigilante swung his, mercifully empty, fist, punching Balefor right on the jaw.

Pain exploded in his head, and everything went black.

* * *

Shirou took several deep breaths to his nose, and then again several more, before verifying the matter with Mjolnir, just to be absolutely sure in case his sensing-abilities were suddenly compromised.

Eventually though, he found he could safely conclude that the Magus lying unconsciously before him was in fact the last of them.

Quickly putting this 'Balefor' inside his pocket-dimension, Shirou turned his Magic Circuits and the mysterious power back to stand-by, setting them down from their combat-state.

The most important matter was now largely over: The Magi were either captured or dead, and the castle was mostly secure.

Now he had to look for survivors to bring to the police station, as well as destroy the Workshops and the research of the Magi. Shirou had no interest in the outcome of something that had taken so many lives, no matter how ground-breaking it might be.

Taking a few minutes to familiarise himself with the layout of the castle, Shirou eventually found his way back to the chamber of the old Magus who had killed himself before Shirou had even as much as laid eyes on him.

The man still laid there, head on the desk, lab coat on, the foam still on his lips.

Shirou meticulously searched the entire room, disposing of every Bounded Field and other defensive measure that he could find. During this search, he found five still-living people, who were promptly placed into the Vault as well.

He wasn't entirely happy he had to do so, but he could hardly allow them to wake up from their induced sleep to find themselves in the middle of a castle that was probably still rife with traps and defences, not to mention the remaining Chimaeras still prowling around.

So after Mjolnir confirmed that it was in no way dangerous or harmful, Shirou placed them in stasis in his Vault. He would deliver them to the police-station later, when he was done here.

After having thoroughly combed over the room, confirming there was nothing else of note around, the young Magus aimed his attention towards the old man sitting on the chair, as well as the thick stack of papers and the note beside him.

There were no noticeable defences there, so Shirou picked up the note to read it.

 _To the intruder currently breaking into the castle,_

 _Congratulations, you have found us. You have tracked us down successfully and are no doubt in the process of taking us and our entire project down. My sincerest compliments for your efforts and your victory._

 _My name is Oliver Waudenstad, a name you may immediately forget again, for it is not of any importance. In front of you however, next to my head, lies something that I hope will receive more consideration from you._

 _Those papers contain all of my research into Runes, as well as all other discoveries I made in other fields and a few things I copied from the others._

 _Now, you might be planning to destroy it. I must beg you to reconsider though. Please just keep them, somewhere in a box in an attic if necessary, but don't destroy it. I don't care for my body, but my research is the only thing I have ever achieved, and I would rather see it preserved._

 _Should you be planning to use it for yourself, that is fine as well of course._

 _As payment for sparing my research, I will provide you with information._

 _I have told you my name, but not yet those of my fellows. In exchange for sparing my research, I will provide you with them._

 _Our unofficial leader is called Richard Burgon, the only one here of similar age to mine. He doesn't really do any research, but he does have a stash of Gems fit for Magecraft under the loose board under his bed. He is the one who arranged everything for us, such as clients and information. He has an extensive network and his room might contain many reports and papers that hold information you would consider very interesting._

 _Vincent Balefor is the youngest of us and mostly focuses on the making of the Chimaeras you have probably faced by now, as well as a private project into the making of Crests, using the Souls or the blood veins or something like that from mundane people. He called it an easy way of obtaining more Prana._

 _Meire and Alva are Southern-European and focus mostly on Dead Apostles. They are wanted by the Church and the Clocktower alike for that research but managed to escape after their families threw them out._

 _We are all Sealing Designees, wanted by the Clocktower, so turning us in will get you a nice reward. Don't forget to take our bodies with you, you might need them as proof that you actually dealt with us._

 _Once more, I plead with you to spare my research, in exchange for my information if nothing else._

 _Was signed,_

 _Oliver Waudenstad, foolish old man._

Well, that was surprising.

Putting the note down again, Shirou quickly scanned a few pages of the accumulated research, frowning at the cruelties that had been committed, but also acknowledging that this man had made impressive progress.

It was however still for the best to burn it. It had been obtained through cruel means and he had no use for it. The old man had been a monstrous bastard anyway, so Shirou saw no reason to oblige to his request.

Without another thought, he set it ablaze. Now he just needed to figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff in the castle, as well as the Magi in his Vault.

The benches, tables, knives and other equipment would not be spared however. Shirou picked up one of the scalpels, the oldest looking one, and used Structural Analysis on it, just to see what would happen.

The feedback he received definitely left a bad taste in his mouth. Shirou could clearly see the atrocities before him, the horrors committed with this scalpel, the many people that had died, begging for mercy, just to satiate a monster's bloodlust.

Worse, he was pretty sure he could dissect people himself now, by drawing on the history of the scalpel, making his frown deepen slightly.

In a corner of his mind, he was aware that his reactions were too mild for the circumstances, but he couldn't help it. Dead bodies and gruesome sights didn't bother him anymore, not after the fire.

The golden-eyed Magus threw the knife back on one of the benches and moved the body into the vault, before promptly setting fire to the entire Workshop.

Combining the Rune of Fire with the Cleansing Power, Shirou created Purifying Flames that quickly burned away everything present in the room as if it were all dried leaves.

This was only the first step however, as he still had four other Workshops to visit. Maybe three, if those 'Meire and Alva' shared one for their research.

It turned out that those two did in fact share a Workshop, one filled to the brim with the Dead; bodies that had been partially turned into Ghouls, bodies that still moved even in death, bodies that seemed half-way through a transformation into Dead Apostles themselves, and much more abominations that should never have existed.

He didn't possess the means to save these people, so in the end, he put them out of their misery, even if he absolutely despised he had to do so.

It also turned out Meire and Alva were the ones who had killed each other.

This time, Shirou didn't bother with going over the room. After removing the bodies and the few surviving people, who had been locked away in cages like cattle, being kept sedated by hypnosis most likely, he simply burned everything to ash.

The Workshop and every bit of research of Vincent Balefor suffered the same fate. Shirou had thrown one glance, _just one_ , on the man's research, but that had been enough to know that it was too vile to continue to exist.

He had been the worst of them by far in terms of numbers of casualties, and paradoxically also the one that had achieved the least.

Burgon, the leader, however, possessed a Workshop that, against all expectations, did not contain any kind of evidence of immoral activities, at first sight at least. It just seemed like a regular office belonging to a simple manager working from nine until six.

Of course, after reading several papers and agendas, Shirou discovered that Burgon was not innocent at all. In fact, he had been one of the people in charge of a rather large part of the black market in Eastern-Asia.

He hadn't committed any real atrocities himself, but he had clearly enabled many of them during his years in Japan.

Shirou ended up keeping the papers. There was plenty of information on them after all, including but not limited to names and locations of other Sealing Designees, the names and positions of Lords that dealt under the table, and even several Dead Apostle-hideouts.

The papers also spoke of the many associates that the Magi here had had, associates that could very well come to visit soon if they noticed something had happened here at the castle.

He'd have to trap them somehow.

Shirou eventually ended up moving everything in the room to his Vault. He would have to go over later, preferably with a cup of black tea.

As for the gems, well, he had a possible destination in mind for them.

After having thoroughly gone over the Workshops, Shirou also meticulously burned everything else in the castle that seemed even slightly touched by Magecraft, just to be certain nothing harmful was left.

One might be concerned that all of the burning would result in large amounts of smoke, that would alert the nearby town of the recent happenings in the castle, but the thunderstorm and the rain completely prevented anyone from noticing anything strange.

The moment he was done with burning everything, Shirou went outside, where he let himself fall backwards onto the grass with a huge sigh of relief.

' _Damn, I'm exhausted.'_ He thought, panting as he laid on his back.

It wasn't that the fighting and the searching had been all that difficult or energy-consuming, rather it was the constant need to remain utterly focused on his task that had sapped his energy.

It was almost like finishing a five-hour exam at the highest levels of university. Not physically exhausting, but certainly enough to completely drain anyone.

Still, now that he laid here, he had a perfect opportunity to test just what had happened with that katana back there.

Closing his eyes, Shirou held out a hand and focused on the picture he had in his mind, willing it to come into existence, doing his very best to remember everything about the weapon.

' _Judging the concept of creation'_

' _Hypothesizing the basic structure'_

' _D**lica*ing th* co***sit*on **ter*al'_

A weight settled in his hand, and when Shirou opened his eyes, he saw that it was indeed the katana from before, once again projected in his hand.

Only, it seemed much further from the original than the one he had projected mid-combat, much more imperfections everywhere.

Shrugging his shoulders, Shirou dismissed the weapon. He'd figure it out whenever he had time.

But now it was almost over, the only thing left was surrounding the entire castle with spells and Runic Arrays that warned him when someone would enter the castle.

It was something he had decided upon inside Burgon's Workshop. If these associates noticed something was off and came here as a result, Shirou needed to be ready to… 'welcome' them. Thus the warning system.

If only it wouldn't be so monumental a task.

In the end, it took three hours for him to sufficiently install the system around the entire castle and to also hide the system from prying eyes.

Should anyone enter the castle from now on, Shirou would be notified immediately, with the intruders themselves none the wiser.

Granted, a very skilled Mage doing a very thorough scan of the castle would notice his system regardless of him hiding it, but it still wouldn't be easy, and most people weren't sufficiently skilled anyway.

After a quick stop at the police station to deliver the survivors, around a dozen of them, and ensuring they would be found and aided, Shirou flew up into the air again, now on his way back to Fuyuki-City.

In this single night, he had managed to learn that someone important in law-enforcement was trying to track him down on a national level, he had managed to take out the Magi once and for all, he had disposed of their 'research', and he had set up a trap for any possible associates.

All in all, a very successful night.

Slowly, it began to dawn on him, as he processed just what had taken place tonight.

He had finally taken down his nemeses. He had ended their reign of terror throughout Japan and saved hundreds, if not thousands of innocent lives by preventing future abductions. He should be feeling victorious and happy with himself.

Yet, he didn't. Rather, he felt as if his job was far from over.

Perhaps he had not processed his victory yet?

Perhaps it hadn't sunk in?

Maybe he would actually feel triumphant after he had slept for a few hours?

Shirou didn't know, but he was quite sure he wasn't supposed to have such a hollow feeling in his stomach after a night like that…

* * *

Sakura hadn't had an inkling something was wrong when she had woken up that morning. It had seemed like a pretty good morning actually.

True, it had started with a long, boring drive by bus, but she had Ayako with her, as well as her new certificate, for which everyone was praising her. So it was still a good morning.

When she entered the Matou-estate however, after coming back from dinner at Senpai's place, she found her grandfather standing in the hallway, clearly waiting for her to enter, if his glare at her was any indication.

Sakura hated how her body seized up once she laid eyes on him, but she couldn't help it. Years of training had integrated that response deep into her mind and though she had made some progress, it all seemed to fall away once her grandfather's attention was on her.

"Sakura, dear granddaughter." The man hissed at her, clearly upset by something. "I see you are back from that boy. How was it?"

"Uhm, it-it was… fun?" Sakura answered, her voice almost inaudible as she shrunk away from his gaze, not understanding why he was asking that question. He had never cared before.

"Fun." He mused, and Sakura understood he was angrier than she had ever seen him be before. "So while I work hard here on preparing you to be the head of the family, you are out having _fun_?"

"A-A-Ah, I-I-I'm s-s-sorry, gr-grandfather." Sakura stuttered out.

Zouken's glare intensified, before he suddenly lunched forward and grabbed roughly her arm, dragging her along, making her cry out in surprise and pain.

"No more _fun_ for you, young lady." Zouken hissed. "I see now that I have given you too much freedom over the past years. No more. If I ever see you with that boy or with that tomboyish girl again, you'll find them next to you in the pit. Understood?"

Sakura could feel the blood drain from her face at the threat. Grandfather would kill them in such a horrific way? She-She couldn't allow that.

"And don't think you can sneak behind my back either." The monster continued. "I can track your every move using the Worms inside of you, dear. Remember, one conversation with them, and you can spend a night listening to their screams."

He pulled her into the basement, closing the door and extinguishing the torches, sinking them in darkness as Sakura felt her heart crumble.

* * *

 **Cut. We end it here.**

 **So, one part of the plot ends, with the Magi now down. It might seem a little anti-climactic, but from what I read in reviews, I think you already expected as much. I tried throwing in a few battles, which are possible because Shirou wants to take them alive, but in the end, only the Chimaeras and the two Dead Apostle researchers actually last for more than a few seconds.**

 **I also tried giving the Magi a little more character, to flesh some of them out, but I don't think it really worked. Ah well, the important things are said now.**

 **More important than characters that are gone now is that Shirou now knows that our favourite detective and his sidekick, Osaki and Yomaura, are after him. Well, he only knows about Osaki for now.**

 **Zouken is going wild. His Worms are dying, and his grandchildren are becoming rebellious. He has finally snapped now, and Sakura is paying the price.**

 **And no, Zouken cannot actually track Sakura with those Worms, he's bluffing, especially around Shirou, who scares the Worms so much they play dead around him.**

 **Edit: I know I said Zouken's bluffing, but some people have informed me he just might be not. I don't know honestly, it won't save him at all anyway.**

 **Also prepare for Ayako getting more involved and Rin receiving a gift.**

 **And of course, we have Waver arriving in Japan and going to the castle.**

 **Ah well, it will probably be alright, right guys?**

 **Also many thanks to my beta-readers, who keep checking my chapters. Crazylich79, liamrodhudson331, and Woggie.**

 **Thanks for reading. Don't forget Discord.**

 **Omake continues**

* * *

CrazyLich79 was sharpening his knife with a bone, his bone, very meticulously, carefully thinking things over as he did so.

He had one chance, just one, to get this right. If he failed, not only would he have Ted after him, but perhaps also several fans that wanted more of Ted's story.

Lich knew very well he was but a simple lich, without a lot of muscle mass, and though magic kept him from falling apart, it would not help in a confrontation with a determined writer and his fans, especially since making the Author's corner on Discord would allow Ted to quickly replace him with another perhaps less efficient Editor, and with him having hired another person for Ted to ask for criticism in the worst case scenario….yeah, he shot himself in the foot right there. "Pro moves right there, past me."

No, he would have to pick his time with care. Fortunately, he was smart enough for that.

Just after the next chapter was finished, then he would strike. Ted would be tired and spend, not focused on his surroundings, while the fans would be satisfied for the moment, and wouldn't notice anything amiss.

Ah, the joys of having such a big brain…well, he was a lich so technically he didn't have a brain, but still, it was the thought that counts as he had come to learn(read: beat into his skull to preserve the last dredges of his pride and self-worth). At least immortality came with some perks.

Sneaking into Ted's room wouldn't be difficult, he knew how to get there, and there was no one in his way except for Ted's rabbit, Ted Junior.

Ted Junior was a quiet Beast, and Lich had never been able to get a read on it. It didn't really matter though, it was just a fluffball.

First however, the knife needed to be really sharp, for a quick blow. It would be embarrassing if it failed to pierce after all.

* * *

 **Ted away.**


	17. Misunderstandings

**Misunderstandings**

Walking on the streets just after school, Shirou was a man on a mission, with a clear purpose in mind. That didn't, however, mean that he couldn't be distracted by, for instance, an old friend trying to rush past him unseen.

Seeing a flash of purple hair from the corner of his eye, Shirou stepped right, swiftly cutting off his friend's path before she could get away again.

"Hey Sakura. Good to see you here. How are you doing tod-" Shirou began, but was interrupted before he could finish.

"AH, Senpai! H-H-Hey. Uhm, I really don't have time to talk right now. I'll see you later, I have to go home. Bye."

"Wha? W-Wait…"

But Sakura didn't wait, just like she hadn't the previous times he had tried talking to her. She slipped past him and started running, sprinting even, ignoring his cries for her to wait.

Shirou had to look on with slight hurt as the plum-haired girl ran away from him as fast as her legs could carry her, not even looking back once.

He almost ran after her, but just like the other times he was rebuffed by her, he held himself back. If she didn't want to be near him, to talk with him, he wouldn't force his presence on her. That was admittedly getting harder every day though.

This had been going on for two days already, even since the night he had finally dealt with the Magi. When he had woken up that morning, it had been in high spirits, yet those had disappeared fast when Sakura failed to show up for breakfast.

Shirou got worried when she hadn't arrived at his house for dinner either that evening, and had resolved to ask her about it the next day. Fuji-nee had confirmed that she had been to school after asking her colleagues, so she wasn't sick or anything, and even if she had been sick, surely she would have informed him of that?

The next morning, he had met up with her on the way to school. That was when she had first rebuffed his attempt to talk and ran away from him.

It had been very surprising, especially since she left without giving any reason or excuse for her actions.

If only he knew the cause for her sudden shift in attitude. Had something happened? Did Zouken do something? Or was Shirou himself the one responsible?

That last thought greatly worried the redhead. If he had angered Sakura somehow, enough that she felt repulsed by his presence, he would have to make amends as soon as he could. The mere thought of losing her caused his stomach to twist and turn uncomfortably.

It was clear he needed to have another conversation with Shinji, and fast. He could no longer allow himself to be blown off by insults and denials. Something was clearly wrong. He didn't know what, but he needed to fix it.

Unfortunately however, the older Matou-sibling was also dodging him at every turn. Shirou was absolutely certain he had seen Shinji from afar several times, but just like Sakura, the other teen always fled before Shirou could speak to him.

Had he angered them both? It certainly seemed like it, but what had he done wrong then?

Shirou didn't know, but since both Shinji and Sakura were probably already inside the Matou-estate by now, there wasn't much he could do at the moment.

He would have to try again tomorrow, try harder, but for today, he could do nothing but accept his losses and head home, to make dinner for him and Fuji-nee. School had just ended, so he still had a few hours to prepare the food.

Not with Sakura, but alone. Something that hadn't happened in a long time but had been the situation for two days in a row now. Which was two days too many in his opinion.

Anyway, he actually wasn't going home just yet, as he had something else to do today. He still needed to stop by Tohsaka's house first, to deliver his apology-gift to her.

When he had raided the Magi's castle, he had not exactly taken a lot with him. It had all been so vile and evil that he had burned just about everything present in there, even all of their research.

That had been an objectively bad move, Shirou freely admitted that. He could always use knowledge after all, and it might make the sacrifice of the people who died for it seem in vain.

But those people hadn't chosen to suffer, those people had been abducted and torn apart for a bit more knowledge on things they probably didn't even care about. That research had been obtained through suffering and death, and a hero should want nothing to do with that.

Shirou wanted to be a hero, and that sometimes meant doing what was stupid, instead of what was logically the best.

Not the most pragmatic choice, but then again, being a Hero of Justice was far from pragmatic in itself.

He had thus burned the Workshops of the Magi and all the research along with it.

That was not to say he hadn't taken _anything_ at all from the castle.

Still in his Vault were Burgon and Balefor, the two Magi he had actually managed to capture alive, as well as the dead bodies of the other three Magi.

He had taken the dead bodies out the day before however, to clean them up for a bit and cover their wounds with black cloths tied around it. It was perhaps more respect than they deserved, but it was the right thing to do.

He had wanted to deliver them all to Kirei right away, but the priest was now watching the church's surroundings much better than before, making it difficult to get close.

Ah well, he would think of something eventually, he wasn't really in a hurry with that. He couldn't deny though that it was strange to essentially carry around three corpses and two prisoners at all times.

The agendas and the information that this Burgon had possessed were perhaps the best find though, filled with information about other Sealing Designees and many other figures of the underworld of both the Moonlit World and the Mundane World.

Granted, most of that concerned things outside of Japan, and so currently beyond Shirou's reach, but he was certain he would be able to deal with them in time.

But if those papers were the best find in terms of information, then the gems he had found under Burgon's bed were definitely the most valuable when it came to money and negotiation material.

Shirou himself had no talent in Gem-craft. Nothing, not a snippet. And neither did Thor, according to Mjolnir

So for him, they were pretty much useless, except perhaps as batteries. He certainly couldn't use them for spells or fancy effects though, not like Tohsaka probably could.

When deciding what to do with the gems however, he had done a bit of research in his father's tomes, the ones that Kiritsugu had bought from his contacts for Shirou to use, and had discovered that there were in fact different 'classes' for gems.

These classes were low-, mid-, and high-quality, depending on the purity of the gem in question.

The higher the purity of a gem, the more power could be stored in it and the more efficient the transfer would be.

A low-quality gem for instance would be able to hold maybe ten thousand units of Prana at most, while the efficiency of transfer would be horrible. When one would try adding more Prana, only around 15% of that would actually be stored, while the rest would be lost.

In comparison, a high-quality gem could hold up to a hundred thousand units of Prana, with the efficiency being such that over 90% of the energy one tried adding would actually be stored, with less than 10% wasted.

And there were the mid-quality gems, in between the low and high. Think around thirty to fourty thousand units of Prana at the maximum with an efficiency of about 50%, at the very most 60%.

Of course, those ratings could be skewed a little if a gem would contain a large amount of Prana already. If a Magus would have the choice between a low-quality gem already containing twenty thousand units of Prana and a mid-quality gem containing nothing, most would choose the low-quality gem.

One also had to keep in mind that not every gem in existence was fit for Magecraft. There were necessary requirements during the formation that could only be met under certain circumstances. Without those, the gems were nothing but shiny rocks.

Burgon's stash, which was held in a small leather bag, contained nineteen gems in total, which was a rather large number all things considered. He was pretty sure even Tohsaka didn't have that many.

Of those nineteen, there were only five of low-quality, probably because Burgon would use those the most. They already held around two thousand units of Prana each.

There were also ten mid-quality gems, each of those containing around ten thousand units on average, while the four high-quality gems contained about twenty thousand units each.

Shirou was pretty sure that the Prana wasn't all Burgon's. It was altogether way too much Prana to have come from one Magus who didn't smell all that powerful.

Anyway, he was getting side-tracked. He had been deciding on what to give to Tohsaka.

Gems fit for Magecraft were crazy expensive; the red-haired Magus knew that very well. Then again, since using a gem meant that one had to break that gem, it only made sense for them to be expensive.

As said before, this was supposed to be an apology-gift, to repay her a bit for making her spend so much time and effort on hunting down the rogue Magus in her territory. This rogue Magus being Shirou himself of course.

However, he had to make the impression that he was a normal Magus, who was not gifting her as an apology, but instead bribing her to leave him be. As such, he could not give her too much, lest it become suspicious. Normal Magi would not just readily hand over nineteen gems after all.

Eventually, he had decided to give her three low-quality gems and two mid-quality ones. It didn't seem like a lot, but he had calculated that the total price of those few gems would equal the year-budget of the average Magus-family.

The average Magus-family was quite a bit richer than a normal average family, so that wasn't an inconsiderable sum of money.

Enough to be valuable, but not so much that it would become weird and suspicious. At least, Shirou hoped so.

He had put the gems in a small cardboard box, with a little note attached for her to read.

He would just hand the box to her in person and pretend he was merely asked to deliver it. She might suspect him for a while, but he could deal with that.

In his haste, Shirou never thought of just leaving it in front of her door. Funny, how the simplest solutions could sometimes escape a person.

Reaching Tohsaka's house, Shirou pressed the doorbell and waited in front of the gates.

The door was opened about half-a-minute later by an irate Tohsaka, who had clearly just gotten out of bed if her unkept hair and tired expression were anything to go by.

"I was just taking my afternoon nap. What do you wan-… Emiya-kun?"

She started out strong, but tapered off once she recognised him, looking shocked that he was standing there. Then her gaze shifted to the package he was holding out to her, and her eyes started twitching.

"Wh-What are y-you doing h-here? Y-You can't just show up unannounced, I wasn't prepared at all." She hissed, frantically combing her hair with her hands, before closing the door almost completely and hiding behind it, only the top half of her face still visible.

' _Understandable.'_

"I'm sorry, Tohsaka-san." He said, bowing his head slightly while scratching the back of his head. "But I was approached by someone who asked me to deliver this."

This being the package containing the gems. Shirou pushed it forwards, his face full of false confusion.

Tohsaka peered at him with half-closed eyes, staring suspiciously at both him and the box he carried, but accepted it still after a moment of thought. She promptly opened it, though she did take care to hide the contents of the box.

Once she got a good look inside however, she audibly gasped in shock, nearly dropping the box from her hands.

"Tohsaka-san?" Shirou asked, looking as concerned as he could manage. "What's wrong?"

"Ah, nothing." She instantly denied his concerns, closing the box and taking a step backward. "Just a little surprised. Nothing is wrong at all. But ah, say, Emiya-kun; who did you say you had gotten this from?"

"Just some guy with a raincoat, scarf and hat." Shirou said with a shrug. "He told me he wanted to gift you something but wasn't quite sure how to do it. I just thought I'd help him out."

"Yes, your famous propensity for helping people. How could I forget." Tohsaka said with a small smirk that quickly changed into a slight grimace. "Hey, Emiya-kun? This might seem like a strange thing to ask, but… if you ever see this person again, could please tell me at once?"

"I didn't really see any discerning features, but will do." Shirou promised, well aware that he wasn't going to tell her a thing.

"Thank you. By the way, just… you know what, if you ever see anything that seems even a little strange to you, come and tell me, please."

"…Huh?"

Shirou didn't have to fake his surprise this time. She wanted him to keep an eye out in the city for strange things? _Him_?

It was understandable that she would want to keep watch over her territory, but to trust him to help her with it? That was surprising, and it made him feel a bit guilty for deceiving her like this.

"Well of course." Tohsaka snapped, clearly having recomposed herself from whatever was bothering her earlier. "It's not exactly normal for masked guys to be handing packages to teenage boys to be delivered to teenage girls living alone. Don't tell me that doesn't seem at least a little creepy to you."

"When you put it like that, it certainly seems so." Shirou admitted sheepishly. "I will do as you ask, Tohsaka-san."

That got him a beautiful smile, before she excused herself and closed the door again.

All in all, not entirely according to plan, but a success nonetheless.

Now, time to go back home and make dinner.

…Without Sakura.

* * *

"Sakura-chan! Stay here and talk to me!"

Ayako had finally managed to corner the other girl inside one of the halls of their school. After having her slip through her fingers time and again for the past few days, the brunette now had her friend in her grasp. Now it was time for some questions.

Giving a cheeky grin, the exuberant girl lightly prodded her friend in the side, though Sakura still had her back turned to her. "You certainly made it difficult for me to catch you, hm. Any reason you were so slippery…?"

Then Sakura turned around, and Ayako's entire body froze upon seeing her expression. Her body tense, her hands on her stomach as if it greatly pained her, her face contorted in what seemed to be pain, while she visibly shuddered, a mutter of 'grandfather' the only thing audible to Ayako's ears.

"M-Mitsuzuri-san. P-P-Please leave me be." Sakura then almost begged, looking startled and desperate, with slightly teary eyes. "I-I m-must g-g-go h-home n-now."

Ayako's cheerful demeanour fell away immediately at the heart-breaking sight of Sakura almost breaking down in front of her. Nevertheless, though she knew it was very rude and callous, she soldiered on with her planned interrogation, knowing she had to get to the bottom of this.

"What on Earth could be so important that you have to run off right after school every day?" Ayako asked in desperation, wanting to understand why her friend seemed so upset. "Shirou has been beside himself with worry for you, and so have Fujimura-sensei and me."

"I- ehm, I was just thinking about that actually." Sakura mumbled, looking down to the ground as she wiped her tears away. "…Could you tell Senpai that I will not be coming to his house anymore? I don't have the time left to do so, grandfather… w-wants me t-to do more ch-chores."

"What?!" Ayako exclaimed, not believing her ears upon hearing _the_ most unexpected thing of today. "B-But you love going there. Why are you- what do you mean you won't be going over again?"

"There- there is no place for me there." Sakura grounded out, still looking down at the ground. "Grandfather does not want me to go to Senpai's house anymore, while you and Senpai don't need me."

"Excuse me?! What kind of nonsense is that? Why should you have to listen to that old fossil? Is this about me still not having accepted or denied your offer? The one concerning Shirou? T-The one w-where we sha-"

"You can have him. Please, feel free to make your move soon." Sakura said, tears freely streaming over her cheeks now. "I, I must go now. Goodbye, Mitsuzuri-san."

Before Ayako could react to the frankly nonsensical statements, before she could slap the nonsense out of her head, the plum-haired girl ran past her in an incredible burst of speed.

Of course, the brunette tried pursuing her, to stop her and tell her that she did have a place with her and Shirou, that they all loved her, but Sakura was, somehow, too fast for her, and disappeared after several turns.

By the time Ayako would catch up to her, she would have long since entered her house, well beyond the brunette's reach.

"No! God! Damn that old man!" Ayako spat, cursing her own slowness and the fact she had apparently made Sakura feel as if she had no place with her friends anymore. Now the plum-haired girl was gone and there was nothing she could do.

She hadn't even noticed that Sakura had apparently felt excluded from their group. What kind of friend was Ayako that she hadn't noticed?! How could she have been so blind?

And now Sakura was feeling as if she wasn't welcome anymore.

She had to talk with Shirou right now. They would have to disabuse Sakura of those asinine notions as soon as possible, before they could take root.

While sprinting at full speed towards Shirou's house however, she encountered another friend on her way, this one of the black-haired variety.

"Mitsuzuri-san." Tohsaka called out, waving her hand to draw Ayako's attention. "Wait for me."

It was very rare for the proper and well-behaved school-idol to try and initiate a conversation like that, so, despite her haste, Ayako slowed down enough for the other girl to catch up to her. It had better be important though.

"What is it, Tohsaka-san? I don't mean to be rude, but I'm a little busy right now…"

"This will only take a moment. Have you heard from Emiya-kun that he brought me a package yesterday?"

"The one he got from some stranger on the streets? Yes, he told me about that. A little weird if you ask me. What was in it anyway?"

"Gemstones."

Ayako stopped dead, halting in her tracks as her world was upended again.

"Gemstones?" She asked in absolute disbelief, gaining a nod from the other girl. "Who would send you gemstones? And in such a way? Who does that kind of thing?"

"I find it strange as well." Tohsaka agreed grimly. "Which is why I'm asking you now, as my, well, my f-friend, to please help me keep watch for other such things happening."

Tohsaka wanted her to keep watch? Of course, that made sense. If some creep was sending her super expensive gifts in strange ways, it wouldn't do for Tohsaka to be careless.

Not to mention, she had acknowledged Ayako as her friend! The brunette would have celebrated if she wasn't already dealing with a problem of her own. Still, she couldn't just let this pass by.

"Will do, Tohsaka-chan." Ayako proclaimed, giving a victory-sign. "You can count on me. Was that everything? I really need to go now…"

"Yes. Please, don't let me keep you." Tohsaka confirmed, smiling brightly at her agreement.

"Cool. Bye, Rin-chan." She said, before quickly leaning in and kissing the girl's cheek.

Very bold of her, and perhaps a little misplaced in this situation, not to mention quite inappropriate, but she couldn't help it. Rin was just too much fun to mess with these ways. It was just about the only thing that could faze the elegant girl.

Ayako ran on, with the spluttered protests of the black-haired girl chasing her as she went. Despite her being a school-idol, it was surprisingly easy to tease her once you knew how. A little word of fondness or a gesture of affection and the girl was in a frenzy…

Wait. That was actually pretty depressing…

Damn, Tohsaka had her demons as well it seemed, and Ayako had again missed it. She really needed to pay closer attention to her friends. At this rate, it wouldn't be surprising if Shirou had some kind of problem as well.

No scratch that. He definitely had some kind of problem.

She really knew how to pick her friends, didn't she?

Still, she wouldn't trade them for the world.

* * *

It had been over half-an-hour ago now that Mitsuzuri had run off, yet Rin's cheeks still felt a little more heated than normal. The nerve of that girl to act like she did!

The brunette was a friendly acquaintance, yes, but that didn't mean Rin wanted her as a friend all of a sudden. She might be very nice and always managed to lift her spirits, but Rin wasn't just going to let her be close or anything. Who did that girl think she was anyway, k-k-k-kissing her like that?

Belatedly realising that she was spending far too much time thinking on this, Rin violently shook her head, trying to dispel the thoughts.

Ugh, why did Mitsuzuri have to be so exuberant all the time? It was so annoying, just like that tendency of her to act like they were friends. They weren't, really not.

It wasn't like she appreciated the other girl or something like that, just because she didn't walk after her like a headless chicken...

 _Anyway_ , she had more important things to deal with, like that stupid package with that horribly vague note in it.

When Emiya-kun had suddenly stood in front of her door, holding out a package for her, she had thought for a moment that _he_ was giving her the package.

She had been struck silent for a moment, not knowing at all how to react to receiving a gift from him of all people.

Which was really annoying too. It was hardly the first time she had received a present from someone, her admirers gave her stuff all the time, and she had never had any trouble refusing those gifts in elegant and socially acceptable ways before.

So why had she stood there stuttering like an idiot when Emiya offered the box to her?

Probably because he was a friendly acquaintance and she didn't want to reject him out of hand. Yes, that was the reason, nothing else.

It had turned out though that he was merely passing it along for someone else. She had assumed for one of the aforementioned admirers, and she had been prepared to tell him to take it back.

She had wondered though why someone would use Emiya-kun for such a thing. Wouldn't it defeat the purpose of a seduction-gift if you had someone else deliver it?

When she had looked into the box however, and had seen the obviously magically charged gems, she understood. Her friend, no, friendly acquaintance, had been used as errant boy by another Magus, for reasons unknown to her.

Also spotting a note among the gems, Rin had finished the conversation with Emiya as soon as she could, though not before ordering him to report anything strange that he might notice in town to her.

Fortunately, Emiya hadn't argued at all, and neither had he questioned her, instead just promising to do as he was asked.

Rin appreciated that a lot.

Moving on. Once she had managed to chase the redhead away, she had read the note, which was both enlightening, and very short on information.

 _Dear Tohsaka-dono,_

 _I contact you in your occupation of Magus and the official Second Owner of Fuyuki-City._

 _I shall be blunt with you. I have been running rampant in your territory for quite a while now, whenever I visited your city, and for this, I apologise from the bottom of my heart._

 _Unfortunately for us both, I cannot approach you at the moment, as I am attempting to keep myself hidden from prying eyes. To at least try to make amends, I have sent you a gift, as an apology._

 _You may use the gems as you see fit. I have not added any spells or enchantments to them at all of course, but you are free to check for yourself._

 _Hopefully, they can convince you to forgive my audacity._

 _Was signed,_

 _A fellow practitioner of Magecraft._

This was the guy who had been causing the disturbances of the past months. The one who had been throwing around such large amounts of power and had delivered the mercenary to Kirei.

Well, that last point was forgivable. Delivering a criminal to an official representative of the Burial Agency was allowed by the law of both the Clocktower and the Church itself, and Rin really had been able to put that reward money to good use.

But running rampant through her territory was not allowed, nor was it appreciated, not without informing and consulting her first at least, and she would not let an outright bribe prevent her from tracking this person down and making her displeasure known.

That said, she would keep the gems. From what she could determine, the normal price she would have to pay for them would bankrupt her five times over with her finances being as they were now, so getting them as a present was nice. She deserved it after all the trouble this Magus had caused her.

She would, of course, first check them over thoroughly for tampering before she would use them for anything, she wasn't born yesterday after all.

But as she went inside, Rin did hesitate for a moment. Both Emiya and Mitsuzuri were now aware, to an extent, that something weird was happening in the city and had received the order to report such things directly to her, but was that safe? For both them and Rin herself?

There was after all no guarantee that she would be able to best this Magus, especially since she had felt very well just how much power they had. She might bite off more than she could chew if she confronted them.

But what did that mean for her frien-, no, friendly acquaintances? Were they in danger now that they were looking for suspicious activity? Had Rin sent them to their deaths?

She would have to think this through more, and fast.

Rin would never forgive herself if her haste and careless behaviour got her two favourite people harmed or even killed.

* * *

 _About eight hours earlier_

Waver Velvet was normally a very patient man. Everyone he knew would gladly attest to that, from his students and friends, to his employees and fellow lords. They all knew him as someone who wasn't quick to anger and could actually think things through, even under significant duress.

That said, he had to admit that the wait was slowly getting on his nerves now, as he sat on his chair, waiting for the plane to arrive in Japan.

It had only been the previous day that the recently captured mercenary, one Conrad Faubley apparently, had told them the location of his latest employers and Waver's long time enemy and target: Vincent Balefor.

That man was the main reason for his current impatience. Having to sit in a plane, doing nothing useful at all, was slowly eroding his patience. Especially since he knew that his target was living the good life in the meantime.

He was able to sooth himself slightly though with the prospect of finally arresting the man for his crimes. It was beyond a doubt now that he would not be getting away this time.

Killing his uncle and nephew, who had been the lord and the heir apparent respectively of the Balefor family, was already enough for Balefor to have considerable priority on the lists of Sealing Designees. Most lords didn't like it after all if it seemed like someone could kill them and then get away with it too.

Stealing the Crest of his family was another strike against him, as the Clocktower, and basically everyone else, were very attached to the Crests they possessed, to the level where stealing or damaging one could easily mean a very painful death.

But of course, Balefor hadn't stopped at that. According to the mercenary, and there was no reason to assume the man was lying, that criminal, along with his new associates, had also set up a scheme to abduct literally hundreds, if not thousands of innocent people from all over Japan, to be used as subjects for their inhuman experiments.

While Waver could acknowledge the idea was rather clever, he also had to express his sheer disgust for the concept. So much loss of life, for research that probably wasn't even worth it.

Unfortunately, that particular action wasn't forbidden by the laws of the Clocktower. He hated it, and so did most of his fellows, but they couldn't punish anyone for that.

The Sealing Designees had made a crucial mistake however, when they had tried to abduct an official Second Owner for their crazy schemes.

Not only had their hired mercenary been caught in the act, most likely by an associate of the Second Owner in question, but that associate had also delivered that mercenary, an already wanted man, to the local priest, and thus eventually to the Clocktower, where he had sung like a bird.

And now Waver was on his way to put an end to their abominable operations and drag all five of the Magi back to the Clocktower. Especially Balefor of course, but the rest of them wouldn't get away with their actions either.

After that, he would pay a visit to Fuyuki-City, to speak with the Second Owner and their associate there, and he would try to see Glen and Martha again.

He wasn't really supposed to visit the latter two, he knew that, but it wasn't like anyone would notice or care all that much anyway.

If only the plane would go a little faster.

"What are you thinking about, my lord?" The woman next to him suddenly asked, looking up from her magazine, which was opened at an advertisement for suits. "You're looking very focused there."

Happy with the distraction, Waver answered her readily enough.

"Nothing much, just bemoaning the slowness of this entire journey. Being so close, yet still so far is frustrating, to say the least."

Bazett Fraga McRemitz, whom he was allowed to call by her first name, member of the legendary Fraga-clan, exceptional Enforcer, and his current partner for this mission, hummed in response to his answer.

"I suppose Japan is pretty far away from London. Still, I'm quite sure that when things inevitably go wrong for us, you'll look back on these peaceful hours and wish you had appreciated them more."

"Maybe, probably, but for now, I just want to be there. This journey just takes too long altogether, just like back then, though my reasons for travelling to that country are quite different now than they were all those years ago."

"I'll believe that. I don't think anyone here doesn't know of your exploits back then, in that city. Any reason you're so antsy now though?"

"I would've thought the cause of my behaviour was obvious. You weren't briefed on the mission beforehand?"

"Not really, just the basics. They were asking around for extra people, and the payment was such that I couldn't resist joining up. I suppose I was so happy with being picked that I didn't ask too many questions."

A dry look from Waver had her raise her hands in defence. "I'm not greedy, really not, I just recently lost a lot of money to some scammers, again, as well as two of my suits, so I can use some lucrative jobs right now."

Waver kept up his look for a few more moments, before he sighed deeply.

"One of the Magi we are hunting, Vincent Balefor, killed one of my old friends." He explained shortly. "After that, he fled to Japan, where he has been apparently been living for all this time. I suppose I just want to ruin his day and life as soon as I can."

"Understandable. But ah, lord El-Melloi, I've been meaning to ask. What are the rules exactly on finding valuable objects and money in their hide-out? Can I keep them, or…?"

"Feel free to keep them. As long as their research is either confiscated or destroyed, I care not for what happens to their belongings." Waver said with a careless shrug. "Do be careful though, I wouldn't put it past these people to have cursed and boobytrapped everything in there, just to spite us."

"I will be careful." Bazett agreed with a small smile, returning her gaze to her suit advertisement, probably to take notes for when she had some money again. "Now, Lord El-Melloi, why don't you just take a nap if you have nothing else to do?"

Waver grunted once, before deciding to do exactly that.

* * *

Seven hours later, both Bazett and he were walking through a quaint little town called Hiraizumi, currently on their way to obtain information about the castle on the hill, where the Magi were supposed to live currently.

Of course, Waver had also taken his squad of Enforcers with him from London, ready to back them up if needed, but he had deemed it wiser if only two people went out to gather information, as a group like theirs would attract a lot of attention they didn't need.

Bazett and he were going on ahead, the rest, currently staying at a hotel in a nearby town, would follow later, either when their help was required or when they wouldn't have heard anything of their employer for three consecutive hours.

The duo had just finished lunching at a local restaurant. Paid for by Waver of course, as Bazett had very little money to spare. Waver didn't really mind; he was rich anyway.

After the food, the two decided that that a short conversation with the mayor of the town was likely the best way to get the results they wanted.

Apparently, the man had just had his former secretary arrested for corruption, so pretending that they actually had an appointment with him was a little easier than it would normally be.

Of course, once they were inside his office, Bazett immediately hypnotised the man, both to interrogate him and to avoid awkward situations when the man would inevitably realise that they did not in fact have an appointment or even a valid reason to be in his office.

The initial inquiry for strange things didn't produce any results, except for some rumours about a vigilante named Rakurai, and the populace's near-worshipping of him.

Waver was a little concerned at first that this Rakurai might be a Magus, if his seemingly impossible feats were anything to go by, but since the mayor didn't even mention magic as a remote possibility, he was willing to let it slide for now.

Besides, what Magus would waste time being a vigilante? The very idea seemed preposterous.

Bazett also tried looking for possible memory locks in the man's mind but was ultimately unable to find any. She wasn't the best at such things, she admitted that herself, but she wasn't exactly unskilled either. Unless the perpetrator had some serious skill at hypnotising people and placing very discrete blocks, Bazett's judgement could likely be trusted here.

It wasn't as if Waver could have done it any better himself anyway.

Though asking the Mayor for information had turned out to be a bust, trying to ask the locals gave them a bit more to work with.

The accumulated rumours of heavy traffic, periodic screaming, and armed people certainly seemed cause enough to take a closer look at the castle. Even if the inhabitants weren't actually the Magi they were looking for, Waver reasoned, the two of them could still put a stop to some clearly very morally wrong activities.

The moment the castle came in sight however, Waver froze, as he sensed something that should not have been there. From the corner of his eye, he saw Bazett shrug off her jacket and activate some of the Runes on her gloves and shoes, preparing for combat, doubtlessly feeling and seeing the same as he did.

Broken Bounded Fields surrounding the castle, and many Chimaera-bodies lying around on the grounds, dead to the last.

Someone had broken into the castle already.

* * *

It was strange to consider. He had just finished beating his nemeses, putting an end to a months-long mission, yet instead of the expected peace and calm, it seemed as if he was only getting more problems piled onto him at every moment.

Shirou was just in the middle of pondering over his last conversation with Ayako, where they had discussed Sakura's recent behaviour, frantically trying to think of a way to get through to Sakura before it was too late, when a sheet of paper, folded into the shape of a swallow, a European one to be specific, came down from upstairs.

It was coloured a deep dark red, and the moment it spotted Shirou it started making alarm-sounds of all kinds.

Shirou did not have to be told twice, and immediately manifested both Mjolnir and his armour. Having the swallow act like that meant that his alarms on the Magi's castle had been triggered. All of them.

Someone had entered the castle, not deterred by his Wards that were meant to keep mundane people out, meaning that the intruders were likely Magi as well.

While Shirou was loath to lose time right now, time he needed to think of something to help Sakura with, he knew this was of vital importance for his personal dream. Catching more Magi now would protect a lot of innocent lives down the line, and he in particular didn't have the right to deny people salvation and saving.

Also, though it was only afternoon, he already knew that he couldn't expect either Sakura or Fuji-nee to come by today. Fuji-nee because she had a meeting at school, followed by another meeting with Yakuza-clans in a nearby city, and Sakura because… well, because she felt she was no longer welcome at his house.

Shirou gritted his teeth at that last thought, but he pushed on nonetheless, knowing very well this was important.

So it was with both reluctance and acceptance that Shirou walked into his backyard and launched himself into the sky, on his way to Hiraizumi, pushing himself to the absolute limit to reach the town as soon as he could.

The travel itself would only take an hour or two normally, which didn't seem like much, but was more than enough time for any Magus to run from the castle upon discovering that it had been raided already.

Shirou had known that already back when he had laid the trap, but he hadn't been able to think of a solution except for flying faster.

It just meant he would have to push himself harder and hope for the best.

* * *

Waver, along with Bazett, entered the castle through the already-breached gate after having successfully traversed the grounds, to see what the situation inside was like, and if it was as chaotic as outside.

Back in the garden, the only things they had been able to find were more broken Bounden Fields, many Magical traps that had been triggered or destroyed, and a veritable warzone.

Chimaera-corpses were everywhere, most of them in multiple pieces, most likely where the stiches connecting the different parts hadn't lasted through the violence. Entire swats of Earth were upended, enormous scorch marks were spread around and some of the sand had even been turned into glass in some places.

This all, combined with the immense residue of Prana in the air, told them of an enormous battle having taken place here. The attackers must have been quite powerful, or quite numerous, to have done so much damage.

Inside, the situation turned out to be barely any better.

"Looks like quite the fight took place here as well." Waver mentioned to his partner, who frowned at the sight of the ruined hall they had just entered, before walking over and kneeling next to one of the walls.

"This wasn't a fight, Lord El-Melloi." She eventually concluded as she got up. "This was a trap. There are a lot of traces here of spells that were remotely activated after having been here for quite a long time. They waited until the attackers were here before springing it."

"I see." Waver hummed, looking at the hallway in a new light. It most likely couldn't be determined anymore now, but he was morbidly curious as to how many of the attackers had died in this trap during the siege. Hopefully not too many.

Following the hallway past many chambers filled with furniture, books, food and kitchenware, and in some cases, cages, they eventually arrived at the largest room so far, with a door that had been smashed off its hinges and a large amount of ash inside.

After a few minutes, both Bazett and Waver could only conclude it had been a Workshop of one of the Magi, the magical residue and the placing and style of the room making it just about the only possibility.

"So this is where one of them did his or her research." Bazett mused, looking slightly forlorn at the knowledge. "I wonder how many people died here."

"It is probably for the best if we don't think about that." Waver replied, pursing his lips. "Everything that resulted from it was destroyed anyway. At least, I truly hope everything has been destroyed."

"We should probably continue then." The redhead sighed, already turning to the door. "I wonder if we'll be able to find anything of note that has remained intact through the attack, or if everything else suffered the same fate as whatever used to be in this Workshop."

"I suppose we'll see." Waver replied with a shrug, suspecting the latter option was the correct one.

Indeed, as it turned out, the other Workshops weren't any different from the first.

Despite knowing that there had been five Magi in total however, Bazett and Waver could only find three more Workshops, making the total number reach four, though the last one was so lacking in magical residue that they wondered if it had in fact been a Workshop at all.

All of the rooms contained a large amount of ash, as well as a lot of scorch marks along the walls. Besides that, absolutely nothing could be found in any of the rooms. No bodies, no papers, no furniture, equipment, or jars, nothing.

All of this could only point to one conclusion.

"We really were too late altogether." Bazett grumbled, saying out loud what both had already known. "The Magi are gone, and so is their research and their entire Workshops. The fate of their victims, we can only guess at. Someone beat us and did a thorough job of it too. I bet nothing of note is left in the entire castle."

Waver nodded his agreement with her conclusion, his brow creased in contemplation. He would have approved wholeheartedly of the actions of the attackers, if it wasn't for the little fact that he wanted to take these people down himself, or, failing that, at least be a part of the attacking force.

Well, he could get past being a mere bystander that arrived too late to the party. It wouldn't be easy, but he could, eventually.

That didn't address the largest problem however.

As they walked through the central halls of the castle, torches unlit and the light of the setting sun through the open windows the only thing illuminating their way, it was Bazett who spoke up first.

"Sir. Where do you think the Sealing Designees themselves are?" She asked in a hushed tone, clearly unwilling to break the solemn atmosphere in the halls. "We didn't find any corpses, and something tells me they are not part of the ash either."

"I don't know." Waver admitted as they continued, looking into every room on their way, yet finding absolutely nothing worth their attention every time. "And I don't like that at all. I do not mind it if they have been killed already, but it is of great importance that we get the Balefor-Crest back and ensure that none of the Sealing Designees are still out and about. Also, I would heavily prefer it if their research is destroyed too."

"So now we have to search for the ones who attacked the castle as well, to interrogate them?" Bazett groaned, clearly not happy with the extra work. Waver understood that perfectly well. They literally didn't have a single lead now. "What shall we do if the Sealing Designees escaped though? They could be anywhere by now."

Waver closed his eyes for a moment, having to face the truth of those words.

"Then we'll have to track them down regardless." He sighed, feeling a headache come up. "We should probably return to our base and inform the others. If we want to have any chance at finding our targets again, or the ones who killed or captured them I suppose, we'll need to move fast, before the trail goes cold."

"Goes cold?" His partner huffed. "That's presuming there is a trail to begin with, and that is by no means certain, lord El-Melloi."

"No. No, it isn't." Waver agreed. "I suppose we are back where we started with nothing to show for it. We don't know who attacked the castle, we don't know where those attackers are, and we don't even know if the Magi were truly stopped or still somewhere out there. In other words, it looks like I'll need your services for an extended amount of time."

"Fine by me. I'll have to charge you more though."

"That is only fair, we'll hash out the new deal when we get back to our base. Then I'll tell the others too and let them dictate their new terms as well."

Bazett nodded from beside him, a small, relieved smile on her face, before she suddenly grabbed his arm and forced him to a stop.

"Bazett?"

"I wasn't entirely sure before." The red-haired woman began, holding on to his arm, but dropping her jacket on the ground. "I thought it was just my imagination at first, but having this feeling for over ten minutes is no longer a coincidence. Sir, we are not alone here."

Not alone…

'WHOOSH'

Waver felt himself be pulled along violently by Bazett, who threw herself to the side, only a fraction of a second after he heard something large moving through the air, straight towards them.

His partner came down on her feet, while Waver himself landed on his ass. He didn't mind the rough treatment though; the opponent was now their first priority.

The first thing he noticed was that the object he heard flying through the air was in fact their opponent themselves, who landed in a slight crouch several metres away from where Bazett and he had been standing.

It didn't seem like an overly aggressive move, in fact, it didn't seem like it was an attack at all, yet Waver would assume they were an enemy until the opposite was proven.

The fact that the figure wore very impressive and obviously Magical armour didn't help either. They were clearly prepared for a fight.

"Greetin-" Their opponent, a rather young man by the sound of his voice, began, before Bazett, who clearly had the same idea as Waver, launched herself forward in an attack, not intending to give the figure even a single chance to get a spell or curse out.

Using her family's proficiency with Runes to great effect, the woman was able to take her opponent by surprise with her sheer speed, allowing her to get close and punch at his face with a gloved fist, the Rune on her glove glowing with power.

It seemed like it would land at first, but the guy moved his head out of the way at the last possible moment, letting out a strangled noise, almost stumbling backwards as the fist flew past his face. The following left hook from Bazett was blocked with a raised arm, but the knee she launched at his stomach was a perfect hit.

The armoured figure was lifted a few inches from the ground, yet despite the pain he had to be feeling, still managed to pull both his legs up and double-kick Bazett away from him, gaining himself some breathing room as she gasped for air, leaning her hands on her knees.

Not too much room though, as the Fraga recovered fast and launched a flurry of punches at him, clearly intending to take him down fast. Now, many more Runes all over her clothes starting glowing, of which ' _Ehwaz_ ', the Rune of Hardening, was the only one Waver recognised.

Now no longer taken by surprise, the figure managed to block most of Bazett's strikes, and tank the ones he couldn't block or dodge, as well as throw a few punches of his own, of which one or two actually managed to land.

The punches that Bazett landed made loud clanging sounds, as if two pans were continuously slammed together. The armour however held up perfectly as far as Waver could determine, not even a scratch appearing on it.

Waver had difficulty following the battle though, their arms more like blurs as they wailed on each other, but it was clear to him that Bazett was dishing out a lot more than she was taking. Unfortunately however, her opponent didn't seem all that impressed by her blows, seemingly unaffected by them.

Even as Waver contemplated, Bazett continued her assault, dealing several blows to her opponent, but they again failed to faze the figure, who promptly punched Bazett's shoulder. The redheaded woman hissed at the blow, but otherwise showed no sign of being hurt or impeded.

The figure, clearly done with the scuffle, then suddenly tried to grab Bazett in a bear-hug, forcing the redhead to jump backwards, which opened her guard enough for a sudden shoulder check into her midriff, which threw her back to Waver's side with a grunt.

The entire confrontation had taken place in the time Waver had needed to get to his feet. He almost had flashbacks to the Servant-battles of the Grail War, if a severely toned-down version of them.

He didn't bother with talking, but immediately cast several spells at the figure, swiftly copied by Bazett, who threw a Rune Stone at the ceiling above him.

The ensuing explosions hid the figure from sight, as a part of the roof collapsed and came down upon him, dust and smoke spreading through the hallway.

Seeing this, both Waver and Bazett turned around and ran away in a strategic retreat. Staying at a battlefield chosen by another Magus was a folly, and both combatants were experienced enough to know it.

"So, what do you think of that guy?" Waver asked in a mild tone while running over the uneven stones. "Anything impressive?"

"Quite." Bazett hissed, rubbing the place on her shoulder where the figure had landed one of his blows. "He doesn't have much in the way of technique, but he's fast, strong and very durable from what I could tell. That armour definitely isn't just for show either."

"Do you think you could win?"

"Perhaps. Depends on the possible tricks he has hidden up his sleeve. Not to mention that, at the very end of our scuffle, he suddenly seemed to speed up, which means he has probably been holding back so far."

"And you haven't?"

"True, but still. We don't know how much he is holding back, not to mention he could have many spells and curses and other nasty things in reserve. Also, I have to think about protecting you. No insult intended"

"None taken. Do you think he is the one responsible for the mess around here?"

"It is almost certain at this point, though I don't know how many friends he had with him during the attack, or how many now."

"Do you think he would be willing to talk?" Waver asked hopefully, though he didn't really expect a positive answer. Before Bazett could answer him though, someone else spoke up first.

"Certainly, if you would stop attacking me."

Waver turned his head around just in time to see the armoured figure come flying at them, before he received a gale of wind to the back that send him face-first to the ground, Bazett suffering a similar fate.

Unlike Bazett though, who managed to roll with the force and land on her feet, Waver had to catch himself on his hands.

"Lord El-Melloi." His partner hissed. "Get up and get out of here, I'll fight him."

True to her words, she jumped up from her position, cracking the stones under her a bit, and swept her leg towards her opponent's head, who promptly raised his arm to block the kick.

When he tried grabbing her ankle however, Bazett twisted in mid-air, before using her other leg to execute a drop-kick.

The powerful, Rune-aided kick landed perfectly on the top of his head, causing the figure's legs to buckle as he let out a pained groan. Bazett didn't escape unscathed either however, her face contorting in pain, a scream clearly only just held back.

A quick backflip widened the distance between them, but as the woman came down, she was now clearly favouring one leg over the other. That helmet had to be quite something.

Waver, weary about abandoning a partner again, was already standing next to her however, and threw more spells at the figure, who flawlessly dodged them or even batted them away with his hands.

"How about we all calm down here." The figure proposed, dodging the last of Waver's spells. "I am sorry for pushing you just now, that was an impulse. Can't we talk this over peacefully, like you just suggested?"

A very tempting offer, but not one Waver and Bazett could afford to take just like that. Who knew how many others there could be in the castle, just waiting to ambush them while they were distracted by the one in front of them?

Waver despised how paranoid and unreasonable he had to be here, but a glance at his partner told him she agreed with his reasoning. It really was necessary in the treacherous pit that was the Moonlit World.

The option of a peaceful talk was only open if the figure would surrender, and Waver was certain that wasn't an option.

"If your offer is genuine, I apologise for continuing the fight." Bazett said grimly, echoing Waver's thoughts. "But we simply cannot trust you not to lead us into a trap."

"I… see." The man said, sounding disappointed, yet understanding.

"We can talk after we've taken you to our base." Waver said, to which the figure shook his head.

"Not going to happen." He said simply, as Waver expected, before holding out a hand, a small hammer suddenly appearing in his grip. "And I suppose, that I am sorry too."

Then the mother of all lightning bolts was fired their way.

Waver was sure for a moment that he was a dead man, but Bazett, that wonderful woman, stepped forward and _punched_ at the lightning bolt, deflecting most of it to the side, where it splattered against the wall, though she clearly got a minor electrocution from it too.

Waver was amazed at her skill, but also wondered about the lightning bolt not even destroying at least a small portion of the wall. It clearly wasn't very powerful, and perhaps not even all that lethal or debilitating either.

He had only looked at the wall for a second or two, not any longer, he was sure of it, yet when he looked back at his partner, she was already in mid-combat with the figure again.

Bazett had now activated most of her enhancement Runes, but the figure was still capable of matching her, indicating he had some kind of Enhancement Magic as well most likely.

He could tell that the fight was too high-level for him. He could barely keep up with it as it was and he wasn't arrogant enough to think he would be able to make a difference. He was truly loath to abandon his partner, but perhaps it was best if he called the others for assistance?

"Lord El-Melloi." Bazett called after landing a solid kick on the opponent's chest and gaining herself a short moment of respite. "Get away from here and call back-up."

"Right." He agreed, the choice now made for him, before getting up and making a run for it, though not before casting a few more spells at the figure.

He had to hold back a curse upon seeing the figure effortlessly dodge them and engage his partner again, the fight seemingly speeding up even more as the ground under their feet cracked from the force of their steps and kicks. Waver contemplated casting a few more spells to aid Bazett…

But when they started throwing around spells and lightning bolts, tearing the walls to pieces and coming dangerously close to hitting Waver himself, he decided that discretion was the better part of valour.

"Fucking Japan." He hissed through his teeth as he fled like a coward, again. "Fucking overpowered figures with their strange weapons."

Continuing his dark mutterings the entire way, Waver only stopped four corners further, where he couldn't even hear the fight anymore.

Only then did he dare to reach for his communication device, only to discover that it was fried, most likely because of the proximity to the lightning bolt of earlier.

"Damn." He grunted, regretting not taking a spare, though he suspected that one wouldn't have survived either. "What do I do now?"

He thought it over, relying on his experience to stay calm under situations where his partner was fighting while he could only stand to the side.

He had barely had a minute to think though, when he was rudely interrupted, to his great chagrin.

The two combatants, the ones he thought he'd left behind him, suddenly came bursting through a wall, the armoured figure coming through first, followed by Bazett, the rubble almost hitting Waver had he not thrown himself to the ground immediately.

"You maniacs!" He roared, momentarily forgetting the situation in his consternation. "I am standing here."

"Stand somewhere else then." The figure advised not unkindly, while Bazett shouted out an apology.

Waver, remembering where he was and what was going on, quickly recomposed himself, before realising the figure's back was turned to him. This could a chance for him to aid Bazett in her fight.

He immediately prepared several spells, all aimed at the back of the armoured man. The moment he seemed off balance, Waver would unleash the barrage, hopefully distracting him long enough for Bazett to take him down.

The moment came when the figure swung the hammer blindingly fast, almost hitting Waver's partner had she not dodged out of the way at the last moment. Very wise of her to do so. Any Mystic Code that could shoot lightning bolts should be treated with extreme caution.

Bazett followed it up however with a brutal sweeping kick to the inside of the figure's leg, making him stumble and go down to one knee for a moment. Immediately after, he had to block a kick from Bazett by crossing his arms in front of him, still on one knee.

That was when Waver unleashed his wrath, having spotted the best chance he was probably going to get for a long while.

The multi-coloured bundles of light crossed the distance in a heartbeat, striking the armoured back full on, completely catching the figure by surprise...

And they did absolutely nothing.

In fact, Waver realised, they might have only made him angrier now. Normally a good thing, as an angry opponent was a distracted and unfocused one, but very much a problem now, as Waver had now become a target and he most certainly did not possess the ability to take this opponent down, no matter how unfocused said opponent was.

The figure pushed hard, causing Bazett to skid a few metres backwards, leaving him free to turn to Waver.

Acting by pure instinct, Waver dived to his right, narrowly avoided a punch from the figure, but unfortunately remaining well within striking distance of the hammer.

That hammer, that inconspicuous, little hammer, was raised above the figure's head, before it was brought down straight at Waver.

The lord only had a fraction of a second to realise the blow was aimed at the ground in front of him rather than at his body, when his redheaded partner suddenly jumped between them, arms crossed in front of her and her body braced for impact.

It was no use. Her guard was broken as if it wasn't even there, and the hammer struck her stomach with full force, brutally slamming her down to the ground, where she literally bounced like a rubber ball before coming to a stop against a nearby wall, gasping for air and groaning in pain.

The figure, completely ignoring Waver from then on, seized the opportunity with both hands, jumping forward and swinging his fist in a merciless blow at Bazett, who was struggling to get to her feet while using the wall as support.

The fact that she was able to block the strike with her arm was a credit to her training and ability. That she was able to grab his wrist afterwards even more so.

Her opponent also swung the other fist, but Bazett managed to trap that wrist as well, clearly using her enhancements and her physical capabilities to their absolute peak, something that she was definitely going to feel in the morning.

For a moment, Waver believed she had miraculously gained the upper hand again, before the figure suddenly and brutally headbutted her, impacting her head from the front and making it slam into the wall behind her.

Bazett's arms slacked, her grip on the attacker's wrists falling away as she swayed in place, her eyes turning glazy and unfocussed.

"T-That's no fair." She slurred, fighting to stay conscious, yet visibly losing the battle. "T-That w-was a l-l-low blow…"

The Fraga collapsed, the figure catching her before she could drop to the ground, instead carefully placing her with her back against the wall, before checking her pulse. The woman was out cold, a trickle of blood going down her forehead.

' _Well damn.'_ Waver thought, feeling his stomach sink into his shoes.

' _We lost.'_

* * *

This was a total and utter screw-up on his part.

He had found the two Magi while they were exiting one of the Workshops, and he had followed them for a while after that. During his eavesdropping, he had heard enough for him to conclude that these people were apparently also enemies from the Magi, and affiliated with the Clocktower at that.

Unfortunately, before he could reveal himself, the woman had found him. From there on, it had spiralled out of control very fast, to his immense regret. All of his attempts to talk were rebuffed, which was, regrettably, very understandable.

And now he had won the fight, and it was time for damage-control.

Shirou watched as the red-haired woman sunk to the ground after his headbutt, which, admittedly, had been a low blow from him. In his defence however, he just wanted this pointless battle to be over, and he would patch her up soon as this was resolved. Promise.

It was been a stroke of luck that the woman jumped in front of Mjolnir to protect her partner, even though Shirou had merely aimed at the ground to intimidate him into staying out of the battle. He wasn't going to hit people with questionable durability with a divine weapon after all.

The fact that the woman had continued fighting after being hit, and had even managed to block his strikes, even though they hadn't been all that powerful, spoke well of her strength and fighting-ability.

Shirou caught the woman before she could hit the ground, placing her with her back against the wall instead. From what he could see, she wasn't hurt too badly, and as said before, he would patch her up later, but he still checked her pulse before doing anything else.

After that, he had to talk with the one who was obviously her employer, if her deferring to his orders and protecting him was anything to go by.

The man had gotten to his feet in the meantime, after having been thrown to the ground yet again. It had happened a lot to him during the battle, yet he didn't seem all that bothered by it.

What he did seem bothered by however was the state of his… employee? Servant? Maid? And by Shirou approaching him now.

The golden-eyed Magus had to admire the man's courage though. Even despite knowing Shirou's power, he didn't falter or tremble, standing upright instead, looking Shirou straight in the eyes with a challenging glare.

Well, if he expected the fight to continue, he was going to be disappointed.

"My offer to talk is still open." Shirou offered in a light voice, seeing the man's eyes widen in surprise at his words. "I would rather not make an enemy out of you, and I wouldn't know what to do with your unconscious bodies anyway. Additionally, I think we can help each other out right now. So, what do you say?"

"Not make an enemy out of us?" The Magus questioned with a raised eyebrow. "I suppose you're lucky you fought the two of us then. Any other Magus would have seen this fight as an insult."

"I am fortunate indeed then." Shirou agreed, knowing perfectly well how petty most Magi could be. "Now that I have you dead to rights though, will you believe I merely want to talk peacefully?"

"…Very well, I'll believe you, but before we talk, I must tend to my partner over there." The Magus said, his tone conveying that it was not a question. "It seems like you did a number on her."

"She did a lot more to me." Shirou countered somewhat indignantly. Seriously, that woman was something else. If she hadn't allowed herself to be hit by Mjolnir, she might have beaten him in time.

The only things Shirou had going for him in that confrontation were his greater strength, abundance of Prana, the mysterious power, and his durability and high-level regeneration.

Okay, when he put it like that, he had some serious advantages, but her level of skill had been far higher than his, and skill was usually enough to make up for very large differences in power.

"You don't look like it." The Magus scoffed in response to his earlier statement.

It took Shirou a moment to remember what they had been talking about, before he replied:

"I simply heal fast." He explained. "Otherwise, I'd be one big bruise by now."

The answer got him a contemplative hum, before the Magus knelt next to his partner.

"I can heal her as well if you trust me enough to do so." Shirou offered, feeling it would be fine to heal the woman now that the Magus had agreed to talk. He didn't seem like the type of man that would go back on his word.

Hopefully, the redheaded female would accept the outcome as well.

"If you can, please." The Magus said, after carefully thinking his offer over first. He did not step aside however, instead keeping his gaze fixed on her.

Not bothered by the show of distrust, Shirou knelt as well, before using his Healing-ability on her. Fortunately, he had practiced the skill a lot over the past months on criminals he had damaged to badly and victims that had been harmed, so healing the woman's wounds was well within his capabilities now.

Oh, it wouldn't be perfect by any means, but he could heal the worst of it. Her own body's constitution would be able to deal with the rest.

Shirou's hands were encompassed by a golden light, which spread over the woman's body, visibly healing her wounds as it went. The black-haired Magus looked on with something akin to awe during the entire process, until the redheaded woman opened her eyes.

She blinked a few times first, probably trying to get rid of the blurriness, before making eye contact with Shirou himself.

For a fraction of a second, she seemed almost confused.

Then she tried to jump to her feet, clearly intent on continuing the fight, but disorientation got to her before she got halfway up, making her fall back to the ground.

"Easy there." The other Magus said, quickly taking one of the woman's arms over his shoulder, supporting her as they climbed to their feet. "We reached an understanding here. There is no need to continue the fight."

"An understanding?" The woman questioned, sounding hoarse, giving Shirou a suspicious glare. "How?"

Shirou shrugged in response. "I won our confrontation and told your employer here that I wanted to talk to you two, peacefully. He agreed, as long as we patched you up first, so I helped with that. Now, since you seem to be relatively fine, let's find somewhere to sit, shall we?"

The woman still seemed doubtful at first, but a nod from the black-haired Magus made her relent, as Shirou went ahead to search for some furniture that could be sat upon.

Fortunately for both parties, a nearby room held an undamaged table with several equally undamaged chairs standing around it.

Not in the mood to question their good fortune, Shirou sat down on one side while the Magi took the other, the woman giving an appreciative groan as she sat down, clearly still not in top-condition.

Shirou himself then took three cups of tea from his Vault. He had put it there just to see what would happen to the cups, and to his surprise and delight, they were not only still good, they were even still hot.

"Thank you." The black-haired Magus nodded as he accepted the cup Shirou held out to him, not even blinking at eye at their sudden appearance. "Let's start our conversation then. I would really like to know: How many of you are there exactly?"

"How many of us?" Shirou asked, surprised and slightly cautious now. Did he mean Mjolnir? Or perhaps Tohsaka? But he couldn't know the hammer was sentient and Tohsaka didn't even know of him. "I am alone here."

"Yes, I get that." The Magus nodded. "I presume they would have helped you in our battle just now otherwise. What I mean is, with how many did you storm the castle?"

"I stormed the castle alone as well." Shirou told him. "The defences, though certainly impressive looking, didn't turn out to be all that much in the end. The Magi themselves weren't very talented at combat either."

If the Magus in front of him was surprised Shirou had done it all alone, he didn't show it in any way. The woman next to him did widen her eyes for a second, but let it go right away as she took a sip of her tea.

"…That is interesting, and it also gives me several other questions. However, I just realised we haven't even introduced ourselves yet" The Magus continued. "I am Lord El-Melloi the Second, from the Archibald family."

"My name is Bazett Fraga McRemitz." The woman, McRemitz, grunted. "You've got a hard head."

"Ah, thank you." Shirou began, still processing the fact that the guy in front of him was an actual lord, and not just any lord, but the lord of the family of which the previous head had been killed by Shirou's very own father.

Best not to let him know that.

"Might we know your name in return?" Lord El-Melloi asked, looking expectantly at Shirou, who resolutely shook his head.

"No. I apologise, but I cannot give out my identity right now. There is a reason I wear a mask after all. Perhaps if we reach an understanding, I will give you my name."

"Yes, about that." The lord said, taking a small sip from his tea. "You wanted to talk from the very beginning, and now you speak of an understanding, but what is it exactly that you want to discuss with the two of us?"

"I heard you talking about wanting to arrest the Magi that lived here until a few days ago." Shirou explained. "I happen to have those Magi in my custody."

"You do?" The lord asked, a glimmer of interest in his eyes. "And would you be willing to turn them over to us?"

"Perhaps. It really depends on what you are planning to do with them."

Lord El-Melloi regarded Shirou for a few seconds, before explaining that the situation was as Shirou had suspected already. The five Magi had been Sealing Designees, wanted by the Clocktower for crimes of all kinds and apparently, the lord was here to arrest them and take them back.

"We apologise of course for taking so long to find them." Lord El-Melloi eventually said. "I understand that they caused quite a lot of trouble for you here, and I don't blame you at all for taking matters into your own hands."

"That is appreciated." Shirou nodded, well-aware that his actions could be seen as law-breaking by the Clocktower. "Now, I think turning the Magi over to you is indeed the best option, but…"

"Yes, yes." The lord interrupted him with a smile. "What's in it for you? Well, for one, I'll pay you their bounties."

This elicited a questioning noise from the woman beside him.

"Yes, you will be paid too Bazett. As I said before, I have more than enough money and I happen to feel generous right now." The lord said to her. "But as I was saying, their bounties. It is a not-inconsiderable sum of money, though I don't wish to insinuate you are in need of money of course."

Shirou indeed wasn't in dire need of money, but as his father said, money was an extremely useful resource, so he wouldn't refuse it if offered like this.

"Additionally, I am willing to offer you a sponsorship should you ever wish to enter the Clocktower yourself, as well as a favour that I owe you. Keep in mind though that the favour won't extend to law-breaking or actions that may put my employees, students or position at risk. Is this agreeable?"

"It is, lord El-Melloi." Shirou said with a nod. It was a lot more than he had expected to gain from all of this anyway. "Before we close the deal though, I must tell you that of the Magi, only Vincent Balefor and Richard Burgon remain alive. I do have the bodies of the other three however."

"Vincent Balefor you say?" The lord asked, his eyes gleaming. "I assure you, this is no problem at all. At least, as long as you haven't tempered with their bodies?"

"I knocked them out and locked them up. I did nothing else."

"Excellent. Now, we will make our deal. Would you agree to a Geass?" The lord then asked, already retrieving the necessary paperwork from… somewhere in his suit.

"Of course. I believe it is one of the few options we have at the moment." Shirou agreed. "By the way, do you always carry that with you?"

"Yes. You never know when you have to make a deal after all." The black-haired Magus said with a completely impassive face, eliciting a laugh from McRemitz, who had remained silent up until now.

Noticing him looking at her, the woman shrugged.

"I don't have anything to add." She told him. "As long as I get paid, and you two aren't planning on killing babies to drink their blood or something, I will just go along with what you decide."

Shirou gave her a short nod, before engaging the discussion about the finer parts of the deal with the lord El-Melloi.

It didn't take all that long. Shirou was signing his part of the paperwork, in his own blood of course, as one was supposed to with a Geass, after barely half-an-hour of negotiation.

It seemed he would receive fifty million yen for the Magi. That was about four hundred thousand dollars, and four hundred and fifty thousand euros. That seemed plenty for half-a-night of work.

After lord El-Melloi signed his part, Shirou felt the Geass try to take hold of him, but before it could finalise the deal, both Mjolnir and the mysterious power started acting up, standing ready to dispel the Geass should he desire so.

This was however a deal he agreed to, so he let it take hold.

It was barely a shock anymore for him though that he could apparently break the deal whenever he wanted now, without any sort of negative consequences to him.

It made him feel… well, he didn't really know how it made him feel. Treacherous? Dishonest?

"Alright then." The lord suddenly spoke up again. "Now that we are in agreement, I must admit that I do not currently have the money with me. Would it be possible for me to retrieve it while you retrieve the Magi? How long would that take you?"

Shirou very shortly contemplated on simply taking the Magi out of the Vault, but ultimately rejected that option. He could get away with suddenly serving hot tea out of nowhere, but pulling five full-grown people seemingly out of his pocket would lead to questions, and he was pretty sure he didn't want anyone knowing he had a pocket dimension. They might think he had the Second True Magic or something.

However, he couldn't pretend to take too long either. He still had the matter of Sakura to deal with, something that was at least of equal importance to this.

"Give me an hour." He ended up saying, to which the Magus nodded. "Same place?"

"Same place. Oh, and since we are probably going to have more dealings in the future anyway, I will introduce myself anew. I am Waver Velvet, also known as Lord El-Melloi the Second, of the Archibald family."

…

Shirou had to forcibly prevent himself from freezing up. Waver Velvet? The Master of Rider during the Fourth War? That Waver Velvet?

Kiritsugu had told him about each of the participants of the previous War, so Shirou was at least somewhat aware of who Waver Velvet was.

He didn't really remember anything but his name man however, he would have to check his father's notes back home for more information, though it was almost certainly outdated by now.

The man's introduction put the ball in Shirou's court however, who now had to decide whether to introduce himself or not, and if he did, with her real name or a false name. Should he show his face as well?

Eventually, he decided on a course of action.

"A pleasure to meet you." Shirou said, quickly using alteration to turn his hair black, before slowly taking off his helmet and mask. "My name is Fujimaru Shirou. Might I compliment you on your Japanese by the way."

Fujimaru. A name that meant nothing to him. It was just something that had popped up in his mind when he had been contemplating possible aliases, and he had decided to go for it. His first name remained the same though, it was hardly incriminating or unique after all.

"Well met and thank you. Considering you apparently overheard us earlier, I assume your English is good as well." Velvet replied, not batting an eye at Shirou's very young appearance.

"It is passable at least."

"Good. You will find that most of those in the Clocktower don't bother speaking anything but English, and with you being Asian, it would only give you a bigger disadvantage in their eyes. Do you understand what I am talking about?"

"The racial bias against Asians? I am aware of that happening a lot, but it is of no real concern at the moment."

Kiritsugu had told him about that as well, but for Spell-Casters like Shirou and Kiritsugu himself, who conducted no research to speak of and did not play the political game, it mattered very little on the grand scale of things.

It was times like this that Shirou was grateful his father had taught him so much. He didn't even want to think of how he would have been if he hadn't had all of this knowledge in advance.

"That is good to hear." The lord nodded. "Well then, shall we depart to retrieve our respective negotiation material?"

Shirou nodded, putting his helmet and mask back on, before leaving through the opened door, the other two following him.

Once they were out the castle, their ways separated. The lord and the Enforcer went into town, while Shirou walked into the forest behind the castle. Once he could no longer see the castle, he sat down on a tree-trunk there.

That ended up a lot better than he thought it would.

When he noticed the alarm had been triggered, he had expected associates of the Magi, not enemies. Yet when he had found them searching the castle, he had been able to overhear enough of their conversation to conclude that they were planning on arresting the Sealing Designees.

The fact that combat had followed was regrettable, but ultimately unavoidable. As McRemitz had said, they literally had no reason at all to trust him.

After he had won, though only just, they had reached an understanding and signed the Geass. Now all that was left for him to do was delivering the Magi to the lord, and then he'd be done, with a lot of profit to show for it too.

Shirou had always known he would have to enter the Clocktower eventually. If he was planning on becoming a hero even in the Moonlit World, he couldn't just stay an unknown, as that would get him hunted by just about everyone, as opposed to only his possible future enemies.

So a sponsorship from a lord was certainly convenient. The precise details of what he would do exactly at the Clocktower could be arranged later, though lord El-Melloi did mention something about him being a teacher and that he was always willing to take on new students.

' _I wonder what Tohsaka would think of this.'_ Shirou thought to himself. He didn't know if the girl had aspirations to join the Clocktower, but if she did, it was perhaps best if she never heard of him getting the chance now already.

Now, with that over with, having properly processed the happenings of this evening, he could go back to Sakura.

He had already talked extensively with Ayako about possible things they could do to help Sakura, but ultimately, it all came down to the girl herself. If she remained unwilling to talk to them, they couldn't and wouldn't force her.

Unlike what some people might think, tying up an abuse victim and forbidding them from going home didn't help them at all, and it was clear Zouken would never allow such a thing, even if it would have helped.

Ayako had spoken about contacting the authorities to remove the Matou-siblings from their grandfather's hold, but Shirou knew that wouldn't help against a Magus. Unless Shirou was willing to step in himself with very heavy measures, which would inevitably lead to a deadly confrontation between him and Zouken, they wouldn't be able to get Sakura and Shinji out.

Shirou had in fact given thought to threatening Zouken with such a confrontation. He estimated he was powerful enough now to be a real danger to the old man, so it was likely the head of the Matou-family would take his threat seriously.

It wasn't guaranteed at all however that threatening the old Magus would help either. Who knew what he would do when pushed into a corner? He could probably easily sneak past Shirou's back and continue his abuse, or perhaps take other people hostage.

Not to mention that both Sakura and Shinji had declared they didn't want him interfering, probably because they thought an outsider shouldn't meddle in family-business.

It was strange though. Instead of being angry, which would have been the logical reaction, those two mainly seemed _worried_ whenever he wanted to talk about their home situation. Worried not for themselves too, but, seemingly, for Shirou instead.

Why would they feel worried about him…?

Shirou sat up straight, as something occurred to him, something he couldn't believe he didn't think of sooner.

 _He_ knew that he was more powerful than Zouken, that he had almost nothing to fear from the old man, but did Shinji and Sakura know that?

No, Shirou realised, no, they did not. They probably weren't aware he was a Magus, so they couldn't know that Zouken was barely a threat to him.

Was Zouken threatening to harm _him_? Was he telling Shinji and Sakura that he would harm or kill Shirou, or Ayako perhaps, to scare them into submission?

It fit perfectly, perfectly with how the siblings had been behaving. It would definitely explain why they were so adamant about keeping him out of the loop.

He couldn't believe he had not even considered that as a possibility before. What a terrible oversight on his part.

' _That vile bastard!'_ Shirou cursed in his mind, feeling unbelievably stupid. Why hadn't he anticipated that? Of course a Magus would gladly lie to and threaten even their own grandchildren like that if they saw a benefit in it.

What was Shirou going to do about this though? Because he was _not_ going to let that continue.

After a few minutes of furious pondering, Shirou had to acknowledge that he didn't exactly have a lot of options in this situation.

The simplest solution would be revealing to the siblings that he was a Magus, and a powerful one to boot, and had little to nothing to fear from their grandfather. All it would take was one conversation with them both, and he could have effectively solved the problem.

However, that could potentially destroy their relationship, as it would completely take away all trust they had in him. Shirou suddenly telling them the truth, or a part of it at least, was bound to upend things on all sides.

Shirou would be able to accept that however. It wouldn't be nice or fun, but for Shinji's and Sakura's health and well-being, he could accept it.

Doing so would not take away the underlying issuehowever, namely that Zouken was apparently perfectly willing to threaten his grandchildren with violence, and who knows what else he was doing to them.

Merely revealing he was a Magus would only remove them completely from his presence, and would cause Zouken to start watching them even more. It would in no way actually stop Zouken from abusing them.

Forcibly taking them away was also no option. Not only would it create all kinds of problems with the law, both magical and mundane, but Zouken wouldn't ever accept it either.

Perhaps, before he decided on anything, he should talk with the people involved, as well as Ayako, some more. Perhaps Shinji and Sakura had something to say, something that wasn't 'stay out of our business' at least.

Could he try to talk to Zouken? Bribe him maybe? Would he want the gems from Burgon?

Shirou didn't know, he just didn't know what to do, but that didn't mean he was going to let it be. After wrapping up his business with lord El-Melloi, he would make a case out of this, one he wouldn't let go until he was certain Shinji and Sakura were happy again.

A small sign from Mjolnir then told him the hour had almost passed, and that it was time to return for the completion of the deal he had made.

Shirou quickly flew back to the castle, taking very good care not to be seen by anyone.

Landing outside of a hole in the walls, one he had made only a few hours ago to ambush lord El-Melloi and McRemitz, Shirou quickly returned to the room where they'd made their deal.

Once there, he pulled the Magi out of his Vault, placing them on the table, assuring that the cloth that covered the wounds on the corpses were still tightly knot to the correct places.

It was only a few minutes later that the other two returned, both smiling upon seeing their targets in front of them. They took place on their chairs, McRemitz immediately slouching comfortably as she smirked at Shirou, after which lord El-Melloi placed a large bag and some paperwork on the table.

Shirou would assume that was his payment.

"So there they are." McRemitz mused from her place at the table, looking contemplatively from the Magi to Shirou himself, before giving an apologetic smile. "I must admit I have no idea who these people are."

"I recognise Balefor perfectly well." Lord El-Melloi said, his gaze on the aforementioned criminal, before it shifted to the others. "I too must admit though that I don't know the rest of them, but I have the case file right here."

Thanks to Waudenstad's letter, Shirou did in fact know all their identities, so he shortly introduced them by name, occupation and crimes they committed, while the black-haired lord checked his information with the file.

"I see." Lord El-Melloi mused, closing the file and nodding his head in confirmation. "These are indeed the people we were looking for. Thank you for your hard work and cooperation."

"My pleasure." Shirou replied.

"As agreed, your rewards." Lord El-Melloi continued, gesturing at the bags and the paperwork. "Your money, in yens, and the paperwork for both my sponsorship and the favour that I owe you.

"Thank you." He thus said, taking his rewards from the table, before pretending to put them somewhere on his body, though they actually went into the Vault. "Do you have a way of taking these people along with you?"

"We do." The lord assured him, waving at McRemitz, who then rose from her chair and went past the Magi, one by one, injecting them with something she pulled from one of her pockets.

"Eh, what are you doing?" Shirou asked apprehensively. "Are those drugs?"

"Yeah, Midazolam." McRemitz nodded, not pausing in her actions. "It's a strong anaesthetic, that works really well when transporting dangerous criminals. It's also a lot cheaper than any Magical alternatives."

"I also have a full squad of Enforcers with me." Lord El-Melloi added. "I assure you that we can get them to the Clocktower without a hitch."

"That is good to hear." Shirou replied, letting the matter of the injections lie. "Now, if you don't mind me asking; How exactly did you find these people? They went unfound for years before now, so something must have changed recently."

"…I suppose there is little harm in telling you now that we have them. We recently received a captured bounty-hunter at the Clocktower, who had been caught attempting to abduct a Second Owner." Lord El-Melloi told him, completely missing how Shirou almost froze in his seat. "He had been hired by these people actually, but it seems they bit off more than they could chew, for, as I said earlier, the bounty-hunter was caught and delivered to the Clocktower, where he was more than eager to tell us everything he knew."

"Aha." Shirou got out, feeling stupid that he hadn't accounted for that when he had delivered the guy to Kotomine. "That is certainly fortunate. Are you going to do anything else with that knowledge though?"

"Well of course. I was planning on visiting this Second Owner, to talk this whole incident over with her." Lord El-Melloi professed, again not realising the effect his words had on Shirou. "I would have liked to visit her immediately, but I suppose delivering these criminals to the Clocktower has priority. Let me tell you, I am not looking forward to all those hours in the plane."

Okay, so he had a few days at least. Perhaps he could think on this after the deal was over and he had solved the problem with Sakura.

Provided the lord wasn't trying to deceive him here.

Regardless, Tohsaka already knew that there was a Magus around, so the conversation with lord El-Melloi would not reveal a whole lot more to her.

"It was a pleasure doing business with you." The lord went on, drawing Shirou's attention back at him. "I shall take my leave now, but Bazett here wants to have a word with you in private."

"Ah yes, thank you, lord El-Melloi." McRemitz nodded, getting up from her chair and smiling at Shirou. "I don't want a rematch or anything, I just want to talk."

Shirou nodded in acceptance, and as soon as the lord was out of earshot, the woman turned to him, a strange curiosity burning in her eyes.

"Those Runes you used." She began. "You used them really well during our fight, even though they were incredibly basic. Seeing that sort of makes me wonder who your teacher was."

"I cannot tell you that." Shirou instantly denied her, as he turned away and started to walk out of the room. No way he could tell her that his hammer had taught him most of it. "Is that everything you wanted to talk about, McRemitz-san?"

"W-Wait, I'm sorry for asking." McRemitz quickly spoke, holding out a hand to stop him from leaving. "I was only curious if she… No, never mind. It was a stupid question."

Shirou turned back around, before nodding slightly. As long as she knew he wouldn't talk about the source of his knowledge, he would continue the conversation.

"You were pretty impressive during our battle." McRemitz went on. "It isn't often that I meet people as young as you who are able to match me in a fight, so, other then asking for your teacher, I wanted to extend an invitation too."

"An invitation?" Shirou asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Yup. To come by at the headquarters of the Enforcers sometime, should you accept lord El-Melloi's offer. I'm sure both sides can profit from it if you do. We would be glad to have you."

Shirou had to think that over for a moment. Joining the Enforcers would severely limit his freedom, but he would have access to training, resources and information. It would really depend on what he considered more important.

He already knew the answer to that question though. His freedom to do what was right was far more important to him than whatever the Enforcers could grant him.

"I cannot join the Enforcers, McRemitz-san." Shirou thus said, to the obvious disappointment of the woman herself. "I am not against working with them on a case-by-case basis, but I cannot compromise my freedom so much. I have a lot that I still need to do."

"You want to become a freelancer?" The woman asked, her disappointed expression turning contemplative. "That is also fine I suppose. Well, if you ever find yourself in need of help during a mission, do remember me."

"I will, McRemitz-san."

"Ah, call me Bazett."

* * *

George Wesley was an Enforcer of average talent.

That was basically everything of note about him. Average talent, in a few average fields. He knew a few Runes, he knew the basic spells, he knew some spiritual evocations, but that was pretty much it.

Ultimately, he was nothing impressive and he knew it.

Which was why he had become an Enforcer. It wasn't as if he had many other options after all, and this job at least paid the bills, even if the risk was fairly high at times.

It was almost four years ago now that he had joined the investigation under lord El-Melloi to track down and arrest or kill Vincent Balefor. It had been a mostly boring case, without a lot of progress. The guy certainly was good at erasing his tracks, to the point where Wesley had doubted they would ever find him.

Then, one morning, lord El-Melloi had suddenly called, with a very good and concrete lead that had to be pursued immediately.

Wesley had considered it a strange story, with a bounty hunter attempting to abduct a Second Owner on the orders of some group, of which Balefor was a member apparently. That bounty hunter had then been caught and had now told them everything about his employers.

The guy could be called a godsent really.

Wesley had honestly expected it to be a total bust, a prank played on lord El-Melloi. A sentiment that was shared among all of them, save for that newcomer McRemitz apparently. She seemed perfectly willing to believe it, the gullible broad.

She was a pretty thing too, and Wesley might have contemplated to try and seduce her for a night if she hadn't been the type to take that way too seriously. Maybe if she ever loosened up a bit.

Once they had arrived in Hiraizumi, lord El-Melloi and McRemitz had left for reconnaissance, which was perfectly well for Wesley and the others. None of them felt like wasting energy on a bust after all.

At least until they came back, with both of them looking slightly beat up, yet also incredibly triumphant.

As it turned out, the intel of the bounty hunter was not only completely correct, but the entire base had been raided already before they had even arrived.

Wesley had wondered why they looked so triumphant at that, but apparently, the one who had done the raiding had arrived during the search and had agreed to turn over the Magi after only a short scuffle.

Wesley's employer had not said much more, only grabbing a bag of cash and some paperwork, before leaving again with McRemitz in tow, leaving them all slackjawed at the sudden ease with which everything was progressing now.

He had wondered at first if it was merely a prank, played _by_ the lord this time, in return for the prank played _on_ him, but all such thoughts had evaporated when lord El-Melloi had returned with all five Sealing Designees that had reportedly been here.

They never got to meet the one who did them in though, as the identity of that figure was none of their business, according to lord El-Melloi.

The man certainly was honourable, keeping his word like that. Most Magi would have gladly told them all about the one who had manged to beat them to their goal.

Wesley supposed it was one of the benefits of working for lord El-Melloi, he always kept his word.

Even Lorelei Bathomeloi herself didn't always do that, but then again, she was actually pleasant to look at, so it all evened out in the end.

* * *

Shirou was on his way back to Fuyuki-City, no longer holding five Magi in his Vault, but a lot of money and some paperwork instead.

It had been a fairly productive night altogether.

He had been wondering what to do with those Magi, but who would have thought that problem would sort itself out so easily?

Now though, he had to move on to the next problem, that being Sakura and Shinji, and their grandfather's treatment of them.

Really, the first thing he should do was talk this over with Ayako. She was his accomplice in this after all, and should know about this new development. She was a lot better at social interaction that he was, but Shirou was willing to bet she hadn't thought of Zouken threatening Shirou and her either.

She would probably be outraged, furious beyond belief even. She had always been very expressive, especially when it concerned the people close to her.

It was one of the many things he liked about her.

Shirou was planning to go home, he should have gone home by all accounts, but a sudden smell entering his nostrils made him stop dead in mid-air. He hadn't thought that person would still be out at this hour, but he wasn't going to let the opportunity pass by.

He immediately deviated from his path, coming down in an empty street and broke out into a sprint, rapidly gaining ground as he approached the slow-walking figure.

Shirou was approaching him from behind, so the figure did not notice him until Shirou tapped him on the shoulder, making him cry out in shock and turn around, before a look of recognition appeared on his face. "Emiya?"

"Good evening, Shinji." Shirou said conversationally, grabbing the boy by his arm in a firm grip and dragging him off to a nearby park. "We need to talk. Now."

Shinji had just been walking over the streets, minding his own business, not being home to witness that atrocity while he could only stand to the side, when Emiya suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started dragging him along.

"What the hell, Emiya? I don't want to talk, is that still not clear enough for you? What must I do to get it in your head that you should leave us alone?"

Emiya did not answer, and remained silent until they arrived at the park, which was bereft of other people, where he pushed Shinji against an old, big Oaktree and stepped in close, his position preventing the blue-haired boy from going anywhere.

"Did Zouken threaten us, Shinji?" He then asked, out of nowhere.

Shinji blinked in complete confusion.

"Eh?" Was the only thing he could say, completely thrown by the sudden, seemingly random question.

"Did Zouken threaten Ayako and me?" Emiya clarified, causing Shinji's stomach to sink into his shoes. "Did he threaten to harm or kill us if you didn't do as he said? Is that why you always look so worried when you insist that I should stay out of your business? Is it, Shinji?"

"What are you on about, Emiya?" Shinji asked, frantically denying everything again, as he had so often. "Zouken doesn't threaten you, what could that old man do to you anyway?"

"A lot, if he sets his mind to it." Emiya said, to which Shinji had to agree. But how on Earth did Emiya know that? "But does he, Shinji? And if so, why would he see the need to? What is he doing to the two of you that you are so afraid of him?"

"It is none of your business." Shinji snapped, once more repeating the old line, the one that had always worked in the past to get Emiya to back off. "And if you're smart, you stay out of it."

"I cannot stay out of it." The redhead declared, apparently no longer deterred by that line. "Not when you are clearly suffering because of him and his actions."

"We-We aren't suffering, you idiot." The blue-haired boy snarled, now going to complete denial, as all of his other tactics would clearly not work on Emiya right now. "That's all in your mind. You need to let that hero-complex of yours go sometime; you're only going to get yourself hurt."

"Then why did you and Sakura always look so sad before you met Ayako and me?" Shirou asked, to which Shinji could only flinch. "Why do you never allow us to meet Zouken under any circumstances? Why are you afraid of him being close to us?"

"I don't have to listen to this nonsense." Shinji said, trying to walk away, but Emiya grabbed his shirt before he took the first step.

"Why are you avoiding us all of a sudden?" Emiya continued, raising his voice now, and Shinji understood the redhead was not going to let this go anymore. "Why does Sakura always look afraid when she has to go home for chores? Why do you feel the rage that you barely hide whenever your grandfather is mentioned?"

Shinji could feel himself starting to breathe hard, the old memories, all of them, coming to surface. His worthless father, his absent mother, his adoptive sister that he had hated for circumstances far beyond her control, the memories just kept coming, one after the other.

Sakura silently crying whenever Zouken wasn't close enough to see it. Sakura slowly breaking bit by bit. Sakura looking close to harming herself to escape her torment, actually holding a knife to her wrist.

"Where has her happiness gone? Why is she never smiling anymore? …Was she ever happy in the first place?"

It had gotten better when Emiya appeared, hadn't it? Sakura had actually laughed, smiled, she had been happy at times, no longer having only suffering in her life. Her smiles had been as real as could be.

"Why is Sakura only ever crying since a few days ago? What happened?"

But then Zouken had taken that from her in the most heinous way possible, forcing her to stay away from the sources of her happiness by threatening to destroy it in front of her.

"Why do you look like you're seconds away from murder when you walk over the streets alone? _Why do you and Sakura fear Zouken as much as you do?_ "

It made Shinji angry, it made him so, so angry.

Shinji knew this wasn't a good situation. He was angry, and Emiya was working himself up in a frenzy as well, no doubt having memories of his own flash before his eyes. If they went on like this, Shinji might reveal too much, but he couldn't stop it.

No matter their differences, they both cared deeply for Sakura, who was now suffering because of Zouken while her friends blamed themselves.

It made him _so_ angry.

Emiya pulled Shinji close to him, their noses almost touching as he roared the last question. "WHY DOES SAKURA ALWAYS FEEL LIKE SHE IS WORTH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!?"

Something in Shinji snapped at those words.

"BECAUSE OF THOSE DAMN CREST-WORMS!" He roared back, no longer bothering to filter his words, no longer having the self-control to think his answers over before he spoke. He finally revealed the truth to someone, and something inside him relaxed at it.

Shinji regained his senses almost immediately however, realising he had made a very big mistake there.

He slapped Emiya's suddenly strengthless arm to the side, hastily walking a few steps away, frantically working on a plan for damage control.

This was going to be difficult to explain, but since Emiya should have no knowledge of Magecraft, it was still feasible he could…

…

' _Rumble'_

…

"Hrk."

….. _static…static…staticstaticstatic….staticstaticstatic…..staticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstatic…staticstaticstaticstaticstaticstatic…..staticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstaticstatic…static!_

"…"

"Ugh!"

Shinji suddenly felt as if his body was a hundred times as heavy, as if an incredible pressure was suddenly coming down upon him, as if the air above him had suddenly increased a thousand-fold in density.

He stumbled forward, his knees buckling under the immense weight, only just catching himself on another tree, leaning heavily on it to prevent his fall.

Faintly, his ears picked up a thunderclap in the distance. No, multiple thunderclaps, many thunderclaps, countless thunderclaps, coming from all directions.

S-Strange, that hadn't been in the forecast at all.

The wind picked up too, heavy gales suddenly blowing through the park, hard enough to tears branches off and shake even the oldest trees. In the distance, he could see the flashes of an incredible number of lightning bolts, all striking down at the ground.

"Yo, E-E-Emiya. T-There is a s-s-storm c-coming." He got out, trying to warn his friend, though the pressure made speaking difficult. "W-We are in a p-p-park, i-it's not s-safe h-here, w-we s-s-should…"

He didn't get any further than that.

Before he could even finish his sentence, something _slammed_ into him from the side, something with immense strength behind it, lifting Shinji of his feet with ease.

Shinji didn't go flying though, as the thing continued its forward movement, pushing Shinji ahead of it until they impacted against yet another tree.

"Ouch-"

Was all he got out, before a hand grabbed his throat and he was lifted from his feet, his air-supply being cut off and his feet dangling uselessly beneath him.

Shinji had no idea what was going on. He had suddenly been attacked!?

"Ugh, Arg." He managed to get out, as he lowered his gaze to his attacker…

Only for his heart to stop beating for a second.

It was Emiya, but not the Emiya whom Shinji had known for years.

That Emiya did not wear blue-glowing armour. That Emiya did not have a look of rage so frightening that Shinji almost pissed himself. That Emiya did not have sparks of lightning running up and down his body. That Emiya did not have cracks randomly appearing on his skin that had drops of blood flowing from them.

And above all, that Emiya did not have eyes that were completely electric blue, with lightning springing to and from them as barely restrained fury and anger seemed to radiate from them.

That Emiya was not such a monster…

" _WHAT_ _DID YOU JUST SAY_?!"

* * *

 **Enough of this. I've already given you too much. For those of you wondering, Shirou knows what Crest Worms are. He doesn't know everything of course, but he knows enough.**

 **Okay cool, Shirou knows, I suppose we can get to pest-control now.**

 **A lot happened in this chapter, but I'm not going to recap it all. In short, Shirou fixes one problem and stumbles right into the next.**

 **Also, keep in mind that the rules I made for the gems are purely made by me and the ones helping me with the story, that being** **CrazyLich79** **and** **liamrodhudson331.**

 **Additionally, Waver is going to talk with Rin. No, he won't find out that Shirou lives there too and it won't be for some chapters. The next few are going to be focused on Shirou, Sakura and Shinji.**

 **Also, this takes place around 2002, when the dollar was worth more than the euro.**

 **I do not hate George Weasley or any of the other Weasleys, not even Percy. It was only a pun, not a hidden opinion of anything.**

 **I hope you enjoyed the chapter, stay tuned for the next one, though it might take a while for it to get out. It has to be as perfect as I can make it after all, and my time will become limited from next week on.**

 **Also, discord. Here's the link: discord . gg / YaZvJJj**

 **Don't forget to remove the spaces.**

* * *

 **Omake:**

"I can't believe this" Said the young man nicknamed Joaco019 while stealthily following CrazyLich79, or just Lich for those who knew him.

He had just witnessed Lich go into a mysterious building, looking even more suspicious than normal while he did so, appearing downright abnormal.

But to be fair, a walking skeleton was already pretty abnormal for any normal person. Unless one was a necromancer, then walking skeletons were just more walking sacks of bones.

Back to the point, Lich had been upset when Ted had rebuked his ambition to start writing, claiming he still wasn't ready to do so. In Joaco's opinion, even if he had a complicated relationship with Lich (Not in that way you pervs) he respected his drive to improve himself and his ability to endure beta-ing the story, even when Ted got a bout of inspiration and give Lich 30K words of homework.

Those feelings of reluctant admiration were drowned upon seeing Lich so willingly take up the knife offered by that accursed cup and decide to bite the hand that fed him, looking even more shady than before, with glowing red eyes and all.

After hiding from Lich to make sure he didn't suffer the 'Authormaker's' tender mercies, Joaco's first thought was to try to warn Ted, only to stop upon realizing Lich might see him run to Ted. And even if he made it to Ted's house unseen, Lich was... well, a Lich. A being of bones animated and reinforced with magic. Nothing short of a Magical or Holy Weapon would stop him, and Joaco didn't have one with him.

Unless... he too would made a deal with the devil in the other room. The one that set Lich on such an evil path. That cute yet creepy wish-granting being who was certainly more reliable around children than a wish granting alien.

Grail-Kun.

"Grail-Kun, please, I need your help." I said while kneeling in front of Grail-Kun and trying not to anger the fickle being in front of me.

"What's wrong Joaco-Kun?" Grail-Kun asked with a straight face. I made a face of disgust upon realising how truly awful my name sounded with Japanese honorifics, but this was not the time for such matters.

"Lich is about to do something he'll regret. He must be stopped before he kills Ted. Please help me, Grail-Kun" I begged the Corrupted Grail in front of me, not realising what was about to happen as a consequence of my begging.

"You're so hopeless, Joaco-Kun" Declared the Grail, before offering it's solution with a smile on it's face.

"THUD"!

A knife landed in front of my lap, shining ominously in the light radiated by Grail-Kun.

"Anti-Lich Kit" proclaimed Grail-Kun, as if it was the perfect solution to my problem, before whispering to me: "By the way, It counts like a Magic Weapon, so show him who's boss."

I couldn't completely hear it though, because, while looking at the knife, all I could perceive were a rush of memories, reminding me of my first meeting with Lich. How in my attempts at making a joke, I got branded by Lich, with a foul name.

It's not the worst title to be known by, but it's still pretty bad. Many times I thought of it as my fault, yet he's the one that decided to brand me as…

A Lolicon.

So it was that memory that caused me to grab the knife, my mind clouding and my resentment starting to surface. I grabbed the knife, while uttering some strangely familiar words, not seeing how my brown eyes turned pink, and how madness became apparent in them. Nor noticing how distorted my speech became, or the evil smile on my face.

"FiNe. I'Ll DO iT MysElF".

* * *

 **Thanks to** **Joaco019** **for the omake.**

 **Ted has finished.**


	18. Pest Control

**Before we begin, here is a quick notification. You might notice that Shirou behaves a little OOC here, but that is done with a reason and it has an actual in-story cause. If you read on, past the first part, it is explained why he behaves like he does. Please do so and do not immediately reach the conclusion that I completely forgot what Shirou's character is supposed to be like.**

 **Thank you.**

* * *

 **Pest Control**

' _Could I have known about this before today?'_

That was the question that played in Shirou's mind over and over again, the sheer rage and horror he was feeling leaving little room for anything else.

He had confronted Shinji only minutes ago, dragging him along to an abandoned park for a heavy conversation that was sure to get them both worked up.

Shirou had been determined to finally get the truth out of Shinji and wasn't planning on letting himself be blown off again by mere words and evasive responses, like all the previous times he tried.

As he had expected, it indeed devolved into a shouting match very quickly, though Shirou would readily admit that _he_ was in fact doing most of the shouting in that conversation, while Shinji was the one looking calm.

It was quite the role-reversal for the two teens.

Shirou hadn't been able to help himself though. He had lost his self-control. In the heat of the moment, when it looked like Shinji would try and blow him off again, he had seen images flash before his eyes, images of Sakura.

How empty she had seemed during the early days of their friendship, and how much she had clung to him merely because he helped her and spoke kindly to her. How obviously scared she was of her grandfather, refusing to let Shirou meet him regardless of the circumstances. How the relationship with her brother was incredibly strained, yet somehow still loving from both sides.

He knew how much she appreciated and almost worshipped those who showed her even just an ounce of kindness. While he wished it wasn't so, Shirou was certain his kouhai would willingly die for Ayako and him.

Yet, even despite all that, she had never been truly happy, never fully relaxed and comfortable. Looking back, Shirou could tell that her smiles, though blindingly cute and endearing, were always at least a little bit fake too. At times, they reminded him of his own.

He also believed he had a good idea why she was like that.

Sakura felt as if she wasn't worthy of anything good happening to her, as if she wasn't worth anything at all. Her self-hatred kept her from ever making true connections with anyone and prevented her from ever being happy with herself.

He'd know. After all, he was much the same.

What Sakura thought wasn't true though. Ayako, Taiga, Shinji, and Shirou himself, they all cared for her, loved her even. There was no way they wanted her gone, yet somehow, Sakura had gotten it into her head that they were better off without her. Now, he needed to know why.

It was a credit to Sakura's ability to keep those things hidden that he had only started noticing the little signs after the Phantasmal Beast had accused him of abandoning her. He had seen nothing before that day.

So yes, he had blown up against Shinji, something he had felt guilty for already while still in the act of doing so. He had been ready to apologise too, as was only proper after flying off the handle like he had.

Before he could do so however, before he could try and make amends again, Shinji suddenly revealed something that had all thoughts of apologizing disappear from his mind.

The only thing left to think about was the subject of Crest Worms, and what Shirou knew of them.

Which wasn't all that much, but what he knew was not good.

Crest Worms were the familiars of the Matou-family, things that they actually implanted into their bodies for reasons unknown. Kiritsugu had told him of the one person he had known who had those things implanted into him, Matou Kariya, and that man had been a walking, bleeding corpse during the course of the Fourth War, his flesh constantly being consumed by those parasites.

Sakura, his childhood friend, that innocent, gentle girl, _actually had those things implanted into her?!_

What foul beast could have even considered doing that to such a kind girl? What demon of a man could be responsible…?

 _Zouken_.

…Of course. Who else could it be than that foul worm, the derogatory nickname far more fitting for the monster than Shirou had ever suspected.

He had not just abused Sakura over the years, he had _tortured_ her, while Shirou stood by and watched, not even realising what was going on.

How could he have missed it? The signs were all there. Zouken himself reminded Shirou of a worm whenever he appeared in sight, and the famous familiars of the Matou-family were worms too, not to mention that Shirou himself had found many worms all over town, all of them smelling like Zouken.

Matou Kariya however should have been his biggest clue. Of course that wasn't an isolated incident, why had he never realised that?

And even if he hadn't known of the Crest Worms, he should have seen at least that Zouken's actions went far beyond common or even heavy abuse. That he hadn't seen it was a shame that he would likely bear for years to come.

How long had this been going on? Why was this even happening at all anyway? What could be gained from torturing Sakura like that? What was Zouken's game here?

Still frozen in place, Shirou barely noticed how his rage intensified to levels he had never experienced before, even when fighting against the Nokken, when it had impersonated his father.

His power began to leak out, forcing Shinji to stumble back from the sudden pressure, and causing whirlwinds to form all around them, with the red-haired Magus only just holding back the worst of it with his last vestiges of rationality.

With his sanity hanging on by a thread, Shirou knew what he had to do. He would not be denied again. He would not accept it.

Shirou wanted answers, and he was going to get them. _Now!_

Before he realised it, he had thrown himself at Shinji, throwing him backwards against a tree and lifting him up by the throat as he had done with so many criminals before.

Fortunately for both Shirou and Shinji however, the redhead was able to reign himself in just in time, stopping himself from breaking his friend's neck.

Instead, he pulled the blue-haired teen close to his face, until their noses were almost touching, and roared out his question.

" _WHAT_ _DID YOU JUST SAY_!?"

Shinji didn't answer, his mouth slack and eyes wide as saucers, seemingly unable to form any sort of coherent thought or sentence as he was held in the air. The only thing he did was stare at Shirou

Shirou, losing his patience with the silent dumb look, shook him a few times, and that seemed enough to jumpstart the teen's mind again.

"Emiya! You're a Magus?!" Was the first thing he asked, probably not even having registered Shirou's earlier question, a glint of terror appearing in his eyes as that little fact sunk in.

"YES! Urgh, I m-mean, y-yes, I am." Shirou ground out, taking a hold of his rampant emotions, or at least trying to do so. Shinji bore little to no guilt in this and didn't deserve overly harsh treatment. "I-I'm sorry for not telling you e-earlier, but I couldn't take the risk with Zouken watching us."

"You are a Magus." Shinji repeated, the terror increasing despite Shirou's attempt to mitigate it, the tremors in his body only highlighting it. " _You_ , of all people in the world, are a Magus?"

"Is it that surprising?" Shirou asked, cocking his head to the side, his rage slightly supressed by his curiosity and his guilt about scaring his friend like that.

"You are the nicest person I know. Probably the nicest, kindest person anyone at school knows. Most of the guys at your school think you are a doormat and frankly, I don't disagree. How are _you_ a Magus?"

The redhead could see where his friend was coming from, and he didn't disagree that he was about the furthest from Magus-material that one could possibly be. Technically, Shirou wasn't even a real Magus, but having to explain the difference between Magus and Spellcaster was a waste of time, especially now, when Sakura was in trouble.

"I _am_ a Magus, but enough about that." Shirou hissed, deciding that explaining himself further could be postponed until after he'd dealt with Zouken. "Tell me everything that has taken place in your house, everything that Zouken has done, but especially, what you meant with _Crest Worms_?"

Shinji looked at him with eyes full of terror for a few moments, before his body suddenly stopped shaking and the terror in those eyes made place for realisation, as if he was having an epiphany.

"Y-Yes, I'll tell you." He mumbled, before raising his voice, a triumphant note in it. "I'll tell you everything."

And so he did. He told Shirou every single thing.

How the Matou-family had lost its magic over the years, eventually resulting in the failure named Shinji, who had no active Circuits at all, and how his mother had to pay with her life for that failure. How Zouken, in his desperation for an heir, had decided to adopt a child from another Magus-family, that being the Tohsaka-family, who had an extra daughter they wanted to be rid of at the time, to Zouken's delight.

Shirou almost dropped Shinji at that last bit, his eyes widening to comical proportions as he let the words sink in.

Sakura had once been a Tohsaka? One who had been practically sold off to Zouken of all people? Did they have no idea what kind of… _thing_ , that man was?

Shirou know it was in bad faith to speak ill of the dead, but if Tohsaka Tokiomi were still alive now, he probably wouldn't have been able to refrain from attacking the man on sight. Trusting Zouken with his very own daughter, the man was an even greater fool than Kiritsugu had described him as.

Well, that, or a typical Magus who could not care less for his second daughter. One who already had an heir and was only too happy to be rid of any problems a second child may bring, regardless of what happens to said second child.

In the case of the second possibility, and if Tokiomi had already known what Zouken would do, then Shirou would have killed him. Not something that he'd normally consider, but Rage had a far more radical approach to things than Shirou.

This also explained the awkward, if not downright hostile atmosphere between Sakura and Tohsaka. With the plum-haired girl resenting her old family for handing her over to Zouken, and the black-haired girl probably slavishly following whatever her father had told her to do, it was no wonder there was bad blood between them.

An uncharitable opinion to Tohsaka, but he wasn't in the mood to be nice to a member of that family.

The knowledge that Sakura's own family had sold her off to Zouken did absolutely _nothing_ good for his already waning self-control either.

This was made even worse by Shinji telling him off the 'training' necessary to made Sakura into the perfect Matou-heir. How she hadn't stopped screaming for three days upon first being thrown into the wormpit located under the house.

"Zouken wanted to break her, to turn her into his doll that exists only to follow his every command, so he made sure to mould Sakura's very cells into that of a Matou with his worms. He took away her life, tortured her, forced her to isolate herself from others to the point of Sakura shutting down her own emotions just so she wouldn't have to feel the pain anymore. He did everything he could" Shinji hissed, looking disgusted and enraged.

"And he was damn close too back then, before you came along. If it hadn't been for you and Mitsuzuri supporting her, she would have given up on ever escaping that hell, and she would have just let herself become an empty shell after another few months at most. Now though, Zouken has threatened to kill you both if she doesn't distance herself from you, and she is almost back to where she began."

Shirou's chest began to constrict painfully when he heard that, but nevertheless, he pushed on. He had to know as much as possible if he wanted to do something about it.

Shinji also revealed that her hair and eyes had become purple, and that her own Element had switched to the Matou-Element over time. Changes that Shirou knew to be far more intrusive than they seemed at first glance.

What kind of familiars were crest-worms that they were able to do that? They certainly were more than just flesh-eating parasites, but what did they actually do?

"Crest-worms are the familiars of the Matou-family." Shinji told him after Shirou asked for a more detailed explanation. "They are implanted into the body, through every opening they can find to crawl into, if they don't just make one themselves."

"Yes, that's what I said." He confirmed after seeing Shirou's shocked gaze. "They are rape-worms, rape-worms that can, supposedly, act as Magic Circuits. With Sakura though, they, well, how do I explain this? They consume her Od whenever her circuits are activated, usually by Zouken whenever he "trains" her in that pit of his and turn it into an aphrodisiac. Her Circuits are activated whenever she feels the slightest bit of lust, so with the worms turning her power into lust enablers and enhancers…"

...Shirou realised the implications that statement a second after it was spoken.

The worms consumed Sakura's Od and turned it into an aphrodisiac, resulting in a positive loopback, all the freaking time. That was not sustainable, not without an outside source of power to prevent Od-exhaustion.

There was only one method Shirou could think of that could have been used for supplying Sakura with the power she needed, even if the implications of that method made his stomach turn.

When he laid the question before Shinji, Shirou got the answer he had been expecting, yet also dreading.

"Yes, Emiya. You are correct in what you are probably thinking right now." Shinji said, his voice hollow and his eyes holding a look of acceptance and guilt. "I have not only been complicit in Zouken's torturing of Sakura through my inaction, making me his accomplice, but I am also her extra source of power, which means _exactly_ what you think it means."

It took several seconds for Shinji's words to properly register, the confusion and shock too great for Shirou to be able to think properly.

Even though all signs had pointed towards it, Shirou found himself dumbstruck by Shinji's words, his mind racing as he realised just what Shinji had said, just what that meant for Sakura…

His self-control snapped.

…

An inhumane, rage-filled howl escaped from his mouth, his rational thoughts disappearing behind a veil of rage as he flung Shinji backwards against the tree.

Shirou kept howling, shouting his rage to the heavens, as he started punching nearby trees into splinters with lightning-coated fists. Thunderclaps sounded in the sky, lightning bolts coming down everywhere at once, the weather now reflecting Shirou's mood.

When all the trees in reach had been destroyed however, Shirou's attention turned back to Shinji, who was just getting up from where he had been thrown, his back against a tree as he struggled to get to his feet.

Shinji himself meanwhile saw the rage in his friend's eyes, the incredible, all-compassing rage that went beyond anything he had ever seen before, bringing to mind the tales of the Berserkers during the Holy Grail War.

It was clear to Shinji what was about to happen, what Emiya was about to do.

He didn't try to flee however, nor did he beg. He was ready to accept judgement from his old friend, for the unforgivable crimes he had committed.

So when Shirou pulled back his fist, still coated in lightning, closing in on Shinji with unbridled anger in his eyes, the blue-haired teen held his ground, closing his eyes and waiting for the blow to land and end his pathetic life.

It never did.

Despite the immense rage that had taken hold of his mind, Shirou found himself unable to hurt the person who had been his friend for so long, the older brother of one of his most treasured people in the world. He couldn't just kill him on the spot, not without knowing every detail of what had been going on first.

So at the last possible moment, Shirou stopped, his fist an inch away from Shinji's nose, only the incredible air-pressure generated from his swing blowing at the boy.

Shinji himself felt the immense gale of wind the swing produced, yet the expected deathblow never came.

Cautiously, after a few seconds of silence had passed, he opened his eyes again, to find that Emiya had suddenly disappeared, only the huge storm hanging over the city and the many destroyed trees proving he had been there at all. Oh, and the bruises on Shinji's throat and back of course.

He was honestly quite confused at this turn of events. He had been sure that he was a dead man, but he still lived, even after Emiya had learned of what he had done?

Emiya spared him…?

…

Then Shinji looked behind him, and his heart stopped beating for a second.

The tree was gone.

Like, actually, completely gone, roots and all, ripped out of the ground and reduced to splinters.

Was this Emiya's power as a Magus? Shinji wasn't an expert on Magecraft, but he was pretty sure creating storms in an instant and destroying trees with the air-pressure from your blows was… pretty high-level.

Emiya might have an actual chance at killing Zouken if this was an example of his power.

Oh, Shinji didn't doubt for a moment that Emiya was planning to put an end to the head of the Matou-family, even though he felt a slight dread that his actions had send his friend to his death in his anger. He hoped with every fibre of his being however that the redhead would succeed.

For the first time in years, Matou Shinji dared hope that his sister might be freed from her torment, that his old friend would vanquish that monster, that the lives of the two people he cared about most wouldn't be destroyed tonight.

He dared hope that the nightmare they had been living in for years would end.

Who would ever have suspected that guy to be a Magus though? Perhaps Zouken, maybe? He had been pretty adamant on keeping Shirou far away from the house, so it wasn't a stretch to assume he had known.

The old man had never done anything about it though, which probably indicated that Emiya was too powerful for him to try.

It was also still a possibility however that Shinji would be dead by tomorrow, should Emiya decide he was going to deliver justice after all. As long as Sakura was happy though, Shinji had no problems with that.

"Good luck, Shirou." He whispered with a small, hopeful smile, before the events of the past minutes finally caught up to him, all the surprises and the scares and everything else, and he fainted right on the spot.

* * *

The Sin Unpardonable.

A Warrior's Lament.

 _Warrior's Madness._

A state of being in which the power of the one experiencing it was boosted ten times. All ratings across the board were increased, tenfold. Strength, speed, endurance, Magical power, everything.

At the same time however, every bit of logical reasoning would become impossible. All rationality would disappear, in exchange for the incredible boost in fighting-ability.

It was a skill, or rather a curse, that belonged to Asgardian royalty, very similar in principle to Madness Enchantment, giving incredible power in exchange for a loss of sanity and reasoning for as long as the skill was active.

Warrior's Madness however was not something that could be forced onto others the way Madness Enchantment could be. Warrior's Madness had to come from oneself.

The state of Warrior's Madness was reached through incredible anger, blinding rage, and insurmountable fury, often only attained during the greatest of battles or the most traumatic of circumstances.

Thor himself had experienced Warrior's Madness on several occasions, often during incredible battles that seemed hopeless, after hours and hours of fighting when his exhaustion began to catch up with him and his enemies kept assailing him without end.

It was different with Shirou however.

Shirou was not someone who could become sufficiently angry during a fight, or desperate enough upon losing, to attain the state of Madness.

In most, if not all situations, he did not value himself. He did not see himself as deserving of life, so he could not reach the stress-levels necessary for Warrior's Madness during battle. Not when he was the only one in danger.

It was, of course, entirely different when others were involved. Shirou lived his life for others and would never accept anyone dying or suffering around him as long as he could something, anything at all, to prevent it. Especially when it concerned someone he loved.

In these situations, he could be pushed far enough.

Now, he had been pushed that far.

After years of watching Sakura quietly suffer because she didn't want to bother him, after years of seeing her put herself down because she didn't see herself as worthy of anyone's love, after years of standing by helplessly, he had already been close to snapping these days.

The conversation with Shinji had provided the last push, and Shirou was _Mad_. Indescribably mad, mad enough to reach the legendary state of Warrior's Madness.

His sanity mostly gone, his reasoning having disappeared and his self-control in tatters, the redhead did not think about laws or rules anymore. All that mattered now was killing, no, utterly destroying Zouken and saving Sakura from her nightmare of a life.

Shirou tore through the air, lightning bolts crackling around him as thunder boomed over the entire city. His bolts were still coming down throughout the entire city, yet with Mjolnir's influence, they were directed just enough to prevent anyone from being hit. There was barely anyone out anyway, the storm having forced the few stragglers left to seek cover.

Rain was pouring down, the streets slowly flooding as the drains could no longer handle the immense amount of water, the visibility being reduced so much that even Shirou, wreathed in lightning and wearing his armour in full splendour, was barely visible from more than a street-length away.

The wind was howling through the streets, hard enough to blow over anyone foolish enough to not have sought cover. Small trees were uprooted and larger trees had their branches torn off in the immense violence.

Safe to say, any worm outside of Zouken's territory did not survive for more than a few seconds after Shirou began his rampage through the city.

With his focus on the Matou-estate in the distance however, Shirou completely missed the one person who had not sought cover from the sudden storm, but had instead ran out onto the street upon sensing the Magical power Shirou was throwing around in his anger and noticing the downright unnatural storm forming above the city.

That person was Yomaura Taya.

The former Magus could only stare in part awe and part fear at the streak of lightning shooting past her, an immense thunderclap following in its wake, almost deafening her.

There was no doubt that this was her target, that this was Rakurai. The magical energy that was emitted left no doubt that this was a Magus' doing, and she knew instinctively that it was her target flying there, wreathed in an aura of lightning.

It was an incredible spectacle she couldn't help but admire, but it also showed her that Rakurai was quite a bit more powerful than she had anticipated.

More preparations were needed before she could confront him. Fighting him carelessly would be the last thing she ever did, that was clear.

Seeing this merely hardened her resolve to protect her family however. Even if Rakurai was that powerful, she could not waver. The confrontation between them was inevitable, and she planned on coming out the victor.

At the other side of the city, too far away from the centre of the action to see anything, Tohsaka Rin was leaning out her window, trying to see as much of the sky as she could, even as her entire upper body became soaked in the rain.

She knew that this was the doing of the unknown Magus who had given her the gems, he was the only one in the city whose identity and specialities she did not know after all, but she had no idea why he was doing this.

What was the use of covering Fuyuki-City by a storm? What was his purpose?

She didn't know, and she didn't like it at all.

It was clear though that fighting the one doing this was indeed not even remotely possible for her, she'd get killed or captured in an instant.

But she was loath to ask Kirei for help, the Matous weren't an option, and there was no way she could go to the Clocktower with this.

They would want the gems and the money for one, probably under the guise of 'evidence', while her reputation would take a considerable hit if she were to come to them for help. Becoming known to the Nobles as _that_ girl, the one who had needed help guarding her territory, was extremely counterproductive to her goals of joining the Association one day.

No, the Clocktower was out, except as a very last resort.

But what was she supposed to do then?

* * *

Sakura had been having the worst time of her life during the past days.

It was like those horrible years just after her adoption by the Matou-family. No friends, no real family, no respite from training, no hope for a better life anywhere, and the ever-present question whether she wouldn't be better off dead.

The situation now however was even worse for her than it was then.

She'd had a taste of what it was like to have friends, to have a family that cared for each other. She'd been allowed a glimpse of a better life, only to have it ripped away from her by the same _thing_ that had made her life so horrendous in the first place.

She'd had to distance herself from everything and everyone she cherished, or Zouken would destroy them all.

She didn't doubt for a moment that he would follow up on that, or that he could either. No matter how old and pathetic he appeared, he was still a Magus, and that gave him an immense advantage over most other people, including her loved ones.

So even if it pained her, even if it pained the others as well, she had to turn her back on them, for everyone's good. She didn't really matter anyway, the rest would probably forget about her soon enough.

She was again lying in the pit, undergoing her training, with her grandfather standing over her, smirking as the Worms crawled over her and into her. Not that she cared about any of that right now. The only way for her to survive this with her mind intact was to shut off all of her emotions after all.

Shinji had been there too, upstairs, when grandfather dragged her along to the basement. Her foolish Nii-san had even thrown himself at Zouken, trying to stop him, clearly noticing the situation was even worse than normal, but Zouken had used Magecraft to stop him.

She hoped her brother was okay, but with everything shut off, she couldn't bring herself to really care.

"Huurgh!"

The sudden groan of agony caused Sakura's eyes to slowly turn upwards, at her grandfather, who was holding his hands against his chest as he wheezed and coughed, his walking stick falling to the ground as he stumbled around.

"M-My worms." He coughed out, a black substance spatting out of his mouth. "W-What's happening to my worms?"

Sakura blinked once, before looking down at her body, a very vague note of interest in her eyes.

It would seem to her that the worms were doing just fine.

But what was causing grandfather pain then…?

'CRASH'

Zouken just about jumped in surprise, almost falling forwards into the pit from the shock. Even Sakura felt her heart skip a beat at the sudden sound coming from upstairs.

Was Nii-san home?

'CRASH'

"Arghk." Zouken wheezed out again, almost falling to his knees. "T-The B-Bounded F-F-Fields. Wha-What's happening to them?"

For a few moments, Sakura did not comprehend what her grandfather just said, or what the implications of that little statement were, before it dawned on her just what it meant.

The Matou-estate was under attack and the Bounded Fields had been breached already.

While she was contemplating that, her grandfather had been muttering non-stop about breached defences and worthless protections. Suddenly however, his mumbling came at a complete stop, as his eyes narrowed to slits and he uttered one word in a voice filled with both contempt and terror:

"Emiya."

Sakura lifted her head to stare at him, not believing her ears. Why would he mention her Senpai at a time like this? What did he have to do with this situation?

Was he the one attacking the house?

Sakura was just pondering over the impossibility of that, when her grandfather started speaking again, a vicious light in his eyes.

"I have a good idea of why he is here, and he might just succeed in his goal at this rate, but I think I will deny him his little victory." Zouken hissed, before Sakura suddenly felt pain spread all over her body, pain far worse than anything she had ever felt before, as every worm inside of her suddenly started writhing in her flesh, making her scream in agony. "Even if I die here and now, it won't be a victory for-"

'BOOM'

The door to the basement exploded, brutally cutting Zouken off.

A figure then stepped through.

The pain wracking her body stopped as Zouken lost focus, yet Sakura could hardly be bothered to notice that.

She knew the figure that had just entered. She knew him better than anyone else she had ever known, or at least, she thought she did.

It was Senpai!

Yet it was a version of Senpai that Sakura had never seen before.

He wasn't smiling, at all, his face instead contorted in a rage so intense that the plum-haired girl instinctively knew he was no longer rational in any way.

Senpai wore very impressive armour with blue lines running along its surface, giving the impression that it was obviously Magical and Enchanted.

Arcs of lightning were running over Senpai's entire body, crackling aggressively. His eyes were completely blue, electric blue, with sparks coming out of them at random intervals.

Lastly, there was the aura of oppressive power that suddenly filled the basement, causing her grandfather to stumble even more and even pressing some air from Sakura's lungs.

Clearly there was more to Senpai than she had originally thought.

To think he had been able to hide it from her for so long, without her ever suspecting a thing.

No, wait, that wasn't entirely true. There were moments that she had suspected, ever so slightly, that there was a lot more to him than met the eye, but she had never thought it was something like that.

Sakura had learned to shut off her emotions in the pit, something that had saved her sanity for years, yet when confronted with this… impossibility, she felt the shock hit her, regardless of how much she tried to suppress it.

Then her Senpai lifted his hand, and _fired_ a harsh-white beam of energy at her grandfather, who was reduced to ash, his tortured scream sounding through the basement, as the old Magus was ripped apart bit by bit, molecule by molecule, atom by atom, in a few moments that for him seemed to be stretched out to an eternity of incredible agony.

That was the point where Sakura fainted, the shock too great for her to bear, her vision going black as her Senpai slowly approached her, his electric blue eyes the last thing she saw.

* * *

Shirou wasn't thinking of complicated matters, or anything at all really. He just acted, doing what he should have done months ago.

Taking Sakura away from there.

The worms outside of Zouken's Bounded Fields, already few in number because of his culling of the past weeks, died first, all of them, not a single one able to escape his rage, no matter how deep they borrowed.

Shirou's senses, increased tenfold in their sensitivity and range, were picking them up without fail, all over town, after which a precisely aimed lightning bolt took care of the rest.

The Bounded Fields around the garden of the Matou-estate were no match for a Mjolnir swung with ten times the strength Shirou would normally possess, along with ten times the amount of the mysterious power Shirou would normally channel through it.

They broke like glass, their age and power, somewhat impressive for Modern Times, being nothing before Shirou's might.

The worms in that garden, now exposed to his wrath, died immediately, bolts of lightning coming down the moment the Bounded Fields collapsed, killing every worm and reducing all other life in the garden to ash as well.

Shirou continued smashing himself a way inside, his destination being the wormpit in the basement, where both Sakura and Zouken probably were located.

As he passed through the halls, lightning was emitted from him in all directions, the worms inside the house now dying by the hundreds, until not a single one was left.

By the time Shirou found and arrived in front of the door leading to the basement, the only worms left alive were those making up Zouken's body, those in the pit, and those inside Sakura herself.

Shirou arrived just in time to hear Sakura scream in pain, the distress in her voice causing him to forgo subtlety altogether, instead disintegrating the door with a lightning bolt.

Once inside, Shirou saw exactly what he had been dreading: Sakura lying in the pit, worms all around and over her, with Zouken standing on the edge, his form hunched over as he looked at the redhead in absolute terror.

Everyone inside the basement, Sakura, Zouken and the worms, were frozen by his sudden presence, not moving an inch out of fear of drawing his attention to them.

Shirou didn't waste a moment and fired a beam of the Cleansing Power straight at Zouken, watching emotionlessly as the man was torn apart, painfilled atom by painfilled atom, his rage so intense it almost completely cleared his mind, not satisfied at all with Zouken's easy way out.

That was the moment Sakura fainted, the shock being too much for her to handle.

The red-haired Magus payed no heed to this however, immediately firing off another beam at the pit, at both Sakura and the worms surrounding her.

The great thing about the Cleansing power was that it only destroyed what Shirou considered to be unnatural. Sakura did not fall under his definition of unnatural, so she was completely unharmed by the beam. The worms however were destroyed upon contact.

Unfortunately, that still left the worms that had been planted inside of her body. Zouken might still be alive inside those, and they were very bad for Sakura's well-being and health, so they had to be destroyed at once.

Shirou jumped into the pit, coming down in a crouch next to the girl, not even registering her nudity in his Madness.

But even though he was Mad, Shirou did in fact, instinctively, know what to do. It might also have been Mjolnir guiding him though. In fact, it was almost certainly Mjolnir guiding him.

He placed a hand on Sakura's head and the other on her heart, on her right breast. The normal Shirou would have blushed up a storm at that, but the Shirou in Warrior's Madness did not bat an eye as he started channelling the mysterious power, his hands glowing with the Cleansing Power as he started eradicating the pests inside of the plum-haired girl's body.

The individual worms were destroyed easily enough, and all the damage they had wrought inside the girl was promptly repaired by Shirou's Healing.

The one worm right next to her heart was more stubborn however, an aura of immense corruption hanging around it that would have reminded Shirou of the Great Fire if he'd still had the rationality to do so.

Shirou destroyed it too, though with significantly more effort than the other worms. He had to channel the mysterious power to his absolute maximum, his body heating up to uncomfortable levels as he unthinkingly pushed past his limits.

Ultimately, he was successful, a small wisp of… something, rising from Sakura's body afterwards. That wisp then tried surrounding Mjolnir, only to vanish moments later as the hammer, very unimpressed by Zouken's last attempt at surviving, sparked with power. The faint echo of a scream that sounded suspiciously like the old worm filled the large basement for a second, before silence once more reigned.

It wasn't entirely clear what happened inside Sakura's body however. The corruption that Shirou had fought so hard for to remove had been brought into her along with the worms, eventually nearly merging with her Magic Circuits, as well as warping her Origin and Element.

The burst of the Shirou-Force effectively purged the corruption, as well as any and all remains of the worms and their toxic influences. What was left after that however, were an Element and Origin that had been changed forcibly in the past, Magic Circuits under great strain, and a great amount of the Shirou-Force seeping into those Circuits.

What that incredible, impossible mix would mean for Sakura herself, only time could tell.

A final burst of Healing then came from Shirou's hands, fixing the last of what was wrong with the girl, Shirou's own skin now splitting and bleeding all over his body as the amount of power he was channelling became too large for him to contain.

His body was groaning in protest, but Sakura was safe, sound, and healthy again, so he didn't care or notice.

His fury however did not abate after healing his friend, not at all. Zouken had died far too easily, far too painlessly. Shirou wanted to make him suffer far more when he had stormed into the basement earlier, but with Sakura still infected by the worms, he couldn't risk killing the man slowly, not when time was of the essence.

That didn't mean however that Zouken's easy way out didn't infuriate him all over again.

With a roar of anger and frustration, Shirou lashed out at a nearby wall of the basement, breaking off enormous chunks of the rock and almost causing the ceiling to collapse, until he realised that he was endangering Sakura by doing so.

Still raging mad, he ran upstairs instead and obliterated every piece furniture that he could find. Tables, closets, chairs and benches, bookshelves, everything was smashed to splinters and shards as Shirou let out his rage, roaring all the while.

It was an impressive display, yet one that Shirou would look back on in shame later. Losing oneself to anger like that was not something to be proud of, even if it was caused by a curse.

Eventually though, his rage ran out abruptly, allowing Shirou to calm down ever so slightly.

The Madness relented, his sanity and rationality returning to him piece by piece, until Shirou could focus again on his true purpose here.

That was not to say he was completely sane again though, his thoughts were still a jumble and his 'processing power' remained very low, but at least, he was capable again of tasks more complicated than 'obliterating everything in sight'.

Unfortunately, his exhaustion also caught up with him as a result of that. He had used too much power in too short a time, leaving him almost dead on his feet, his reserves painfully empty. He didn't even have the power left to heal the wounds caused by his own power, though Avalon, bless that sheath, was already working hard on them by itself.

Nevertheless, he now remembered why he was in the Matou-estate in the first place. He had come to kill Zouken and save Sakura, and Zouken was as dead as could be.

He was tired beyond belief, but he had to get Sakura out safely before he could crash.

Once he got back in the basement however, when he saw her fragile form, his emotions overwhelmed him again, though this time it wasn't rage that overwhelmed him.

He knelt next to the plum-haired girl again, tears streaming out of his eyes as he hugged her close to him, pressing his face into the top of her head, muttering apologies all the while.

For a while, he held her like that, until he got his emotions a bit more under control, and realised apologies were useless if the recipient wasn't awake to hear them.

That, however, was also the moment he realised the position he was in, and just what he was doing to his dear friend.

He was hugging Sakura, very closely he might add, who was completely naked and also unconscious, pressing her nude body against his chest. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, to the contrary rather, but it was extremely inappropriate at a time like this. Or ever.

Being a gentleman, Shirou did not throw her away in shock, nor did he drop her to the ground. Rather, he materialised the cape that was normally a part of his armour, but that he always let out because of its impracticality, and wrapped it around her securely, its size enough to cover her completely, though he left her head free of course.

He was about to rise again, only to be stopped by a wave of exhaustion suddenly hitting him, his limbs almost unresponsive as his body protested against having to do even more that night.

It would seem his temporary relaxation during his hugging of Sakura had locked up his muscles.

Shirou also noticed that his arms were shaking, and that they felt completely raw and uncomfortably hot, as if he had channelled massive amounts of energy through it, which was, admittedly, exactly what he had done.

His head felt as if it was about to burst, as if someone was stabbing a knife in his eye and was slowly twisting it around too, and his legs were in a very similar state to his arms. His throat was parched, and his Magic Circuits were dangerously overheated.

The worst of it however, was the almost drunken-like state Shirou found himself in. It was like his thoughts were being clouded, as if he was thinking through a haze, even though his rage had abated somewhat already.

Clearly, for all that Warrior's Madness was empowering, it had one hell of a drawback after it was over.

Being Emiya Shirou however, no stranger to pain and discomfort, he was able to push himself up, Sakura still safely held in his arms as he staggered up the stairs and out of the house.

Once he was out of the basement, Shirou saw just how much damage he had wrought to the Matou-estate. Everything was destroyed, only the basic structure of the house remaining undamaged, mostly.

Shirou felt a bit of shame and concern upon realising just how much he had flown off the handle during his Berserker-rage. It was very fortunate no one else had been around. Who knew what he would have done should other people have been present.

He had known of Warrior's Madness before this night. It had in fact been one of the first things Mjolnir had warned him about after it had arrived in his hands, but he hadn't expected it to be this potent and dangerous.

He truly and sincerely hoped he wouldn't ever encounter another situation that would push him as far as to use it.

Shirou left the house at once, only bothering to close the gate of the estate, to prevent intruders from coming in. He had after all only destroyed a few rooms, leaving most of the other's untouched. There might be stuff in the other rooms that Sakura would want to have, so thieves should be kept out.

He could destroy what was left after she had taken what she wanted.

As he was carrying Sakura, Shirou did not fly or run, but walked instead, so that he did not jostle or otherwise discomfort her. He honestly doubted he was even capable of flying or running anyway.

It also gave him some time to ponder over the near future.

Sakura now knew he was a Magus, that was an indisputable fact. He wasn't about to try and erase her memory after all. It was high time he told her everything anyway.

Entering his own house, Shirou quickly took her to the bathroom. After cleaning her up for a bit there, he dressed her in one of Irisviel's old gowns, before laying her on a quickly-rolled-out futon in the guestroom.

He was grateful that the remnants of Warrior's Madness allowed him to mostly shut down his mind during those bits, or it would have been the most embarrassing time of his life, handling a girl's naked body like that. Not just any girl either, but Sakura, making it even more difficult for him.

He had already failed her for years, he didn't need to add this to his crimes against the poor girl.

After he had closed the door behind him however, intent on letting her sleep as long as she wanted, he remembered Shinji, who was either walking through the city now, or was still in the park.

He wasn't exactly happy with the blue-haired teen at the moment, but he wasn't about to let him spend the night on the streets either.

A quick trip to the park where they'd had their confrontation revealed that Shinji had fainted at some point in time and was now lying unconsciously in the rain.

Not commenting on it, even in his thoughts, Shirou picked him up and took him to the house, where he laid him down on the couch after drying him off. He also added a pillow and a blanket. Shinji could sleep there for the night and Shirou would hear him out tomorrow.

With both Matou-siblings in his house now and Zouken very much dead, Shirou was finally free to relax and rest.

A good thing too. He was incredibly tired, and his head was still killing him. Not to mention that his limbs were still protesting against every movement he made. His throat was still parched as well, even though he had already drunk several glasses of water.

It was certainly uncomfortable, but it was unimportant, and nothing compared to the guilt that was still wracking him.

He had been blind. For years and years, he had been almost _wilfully_ blind to what transpired in the Matou-household.

The situation had been even worse than he could ever have suspected, with actual torture taking place, Zouken playing his cruel mindgames on a daily basis, and Sakura and Shinji having no one to rely upon as they were slowly driven to the abyss.

He had noticed nothing all the while, closing his eyes because he didn't want to interfere in family matters.

What nonsense, meddling where you weren't supposed to, was the very essence of being a hero, and it could not be denied that he had been a poor one.

He would have to ask the siblings for forgiveness, for his failings and his blindness. As soon as they had woken up, he would do so.

For now however, he should go to bed. There was nothing he could do now, and he really needed sleep.

Swaying slightly on his feet, Shirou eventually made it to his bedroom, where he fell down on his futon, too exhausted to change his clothes.

Shirou felt himself fall asleep very quickly, his exhaustion catching up with him after going far past his own limits.

It was very likely however that he would wake up before either of the siblings would, so he didn't worry too much about oversleeping.

Even though he was still wracked with guilt, he couldn't deny that everything was better now.

Sakura and Shinji were safe and Zouken was no more.

* * *

Large, ancient eyes narrowed in curiosity as they stared towards Fuyuki-City, Japan. The owner of those eyes had just seen something amazing take place there, and they couldn't help but wonder what would follow.

They were glad that the Matou-girl had been saved so early on. That happened so few times in this universe that every time it happened was cause for celebration. In fact, it was in less than half of these dimensions that the girl was saved at all.

The being knew they weren't supposed to pay such close attention to the heir of Thor or anyone close to him, but they couldn't help themselves. Just sitting here in a higher dimension that even the Kaleidoscope couldn't enter, endlessly staring down and recording everything that happened in this universe, got tedious after a while, even to someone like them.

Their brothers and sisters always had their favourites in the universes they were supposed to watch over, so why couldn't the being do the same?

Well, mostly because none of the inhabitants of their universe had the right qualities for the being to favour them. Emiya Shirou, or at least, some among his many different versions, actually came closest to fulfilling all their requirements, but even those versions fell a little bit short.

But perhaps he could make an exception for Thor's heir. The fact that it was a version of Emiya only made it even better.

Granted, their kind wasn't supposed to interfere at all with the beings of the universes, but that rule was more of a guideline anyway. It was important that Thor's heir would rise to become a protector of the Omniverse, so perhaps they could help him along.

The narrowed eyes widened again, the frown disappearing as a small smile appeared.

"I'll be watching you, Emiya Shirou."

* * *

 **Very nice to write this.**

 **Short chapter, but the aftermath comes next, so there wasn't much to say here besides the rescue itself, and even that was dragged out (in my opinion at least).**

 **Yes, Zouken is dead, or at least reduced to non-sentient piece of Soul that will never form a conscious again and will disappear over time. He won't be coming back for any surprises if you think that. Dead is dead is dead is gone.**

 **Sakura is cleansed, but what kind of effect that will have, no one knows. Her Circuits were infected by Angra and his shards/mud. Shirou had to flood them with power as well, and that can have some strange consequences.**

 **Sakura and Shinji are finally safe, we've waited for a long time, but they are now, everyone cheer loudly.**

 **I believe this is now one of the rare stories where Zouken is actually disposed of before the Grail War even comes close. Awesome, no one likes him anyway.**

 **I also want to say that Warrior's Madness is going to be an extremely rare occasion. It literally took years for Shirou to reach it in this chapter, so don't expect to see it back all that often.**

 **Do remember Discord if you haven't, though again, it is not required, and questions can be PM'ed to me. Reviews will be answered by my assistant and beta-reader** **crazylich79** **, but you can also PM me with question directed at me personally.**

 **This chapter was beta-read by** **crazylich79** **,** **liamrodhudson331** **and** **Woggie** **. Many thanks to them.**

 **Edit: Okay, I'm getting a lot of questions and negative thoughts about Yomaura Taya. Let me discuss her here and now.  
** **She is, as you know, a Fraga, and has been raised that way, by her family, until the day she was strong and wise enough to make it alone in the world. That was when she ran away. She ran away because she couldn't deal with the life of a Magus anymore. She was more than strong and smart enough, but the constant cruelty, backstabbing, hatred, useless power plays and all the other nonsense were too much for her to bear.  
** **Also, as a Fraga, she has literally half of the Moonlit World after her, who all want to dissect and study her. That's another thing she didn't want anymore.**

 **As such, she has a very large prejudice against Magi. She believes they can't be trusted and are always out to improve their own lives and status at the cost of as many people as possible, because they are all cruel bitches.**

 **And really, who can disagree? With 90% of them, she's spot on.**

 **So when she notices a Magus in her vicinity, the first thing she does is prepare in case they come after her and her loved ones. This is not irritating or obnoxious, it is really the smart thing to do. Magi are vicious, cruel, and petty, guys. Sure, this is Shirou, so she is wrong, but in 90% of the cases, she would have been completely correct.**

 **Yomaura simply can't take that chance.**

 **So please, take it a little easy on her. She's just a scared woman who is seeing a very real threat in the vicinity of those she cherishes. What would you have done in her situation?**

 **If an enemy Magus (meaning most of them) even just hears the slightest rumour or gets the slightest suspicion that she is a Fraga, she will return home one day to find her family dead or taken hostage. Not to mention that detective Osaki is still actively searching for Rakurai. A normal Magus would have killed him for that, after presenting him with the dead bodies of his daughters of course.**

 **Most Magi are monsters, plain and simple.**

 **Thank you for your attention.**

 **Edit 2: Some assumed Sakura is going to become an Asgardian now, to which I say: Maybe...?**  
 **Even if it is that, it's not an instantaneous thing. It will take a couple of chapters from them to even notice something wrong from now on (because Sakura is done with Magecraft for now).  
I actually had something in mind, but after some brainstorming with the experts, it was deemed impossible and overly complicated. A new idea is in the works, but no instant Asgardian-Sakura for now.**

 **Omake:**

* * *

A dragonman, clad in armour dark as the night, faceless but for the eerie glow of his eyes walked over the beaten path of the mountain.

His wings were spread behind him, their membrane inscribed with countless illuminated runes. There was no doubt that this was a Beast of the highest order, a danger to all that lived in the Modern age.

Its name was…

Nick!

He was stomping towards a certain building, grumbling inaudible words of discontent. He was leaving craters behind his wake, large craters, every one of them in the shape of its mighty paws.

Eventually, he arrived at the building he had been heading towards and went inside. Immediately, he sat down in front of what appeared to be a being, made of mud, and pressed his hands together in a praying manner.

"Grail-Kun! Grail-Kun! Lich and Joaco are facing against each other in a War! They will tear this world apart! Please. Grant me help in ending this chaos!"

The Mud Being stood silently, not even a single peep coming from it, its eyes gleaming in bloodthirst and glee. It wasn't used to prey coming to it so readily, but it also wasn't going to pass up on the opportunity.

It wondered just how long it could be getting away with this.

Dark energy started swirling in front of it. It kept swirling and swirling until...

'THUD'

An ordinary kitchen knife fell from the swirl and landed blade first on the ground, right in front of the Dragonman.

"Fine then..." Nick rumbled, understanding what this meant. He got up and took the knife with his hands.

"Off with their heads it is~"

And Grail-Kun laughed, having found yet another victim of the Great Knife War.

* * *

 **Omake supplied by** **Nick Terakidan** **.**

 **Ted, having finally killed Zouken, leaves the stage.**


	19. Pest Control: Aftermath

**Pest Control/Aftermath**

Shirou awoke a mere three hours after he'd fallen asleep, which was pretty much his daily amount of sleep after Mjolnir had arrived in his life.

Unlike normally however, he didn't feel refreshed and awake at all, rather he felt tired, spent, his whole body felt bruised and battered, and the throbbing pain in his head seemed to have only intensified during his sleep.

It was safe to say that Shirou had never experienced such a thing before. Not even once had he woken up so groggily in his entire life so far. A few hours were usually enough for him to be completely functional, even before Mjolnir.

This was not the case now, and Shirou was quite sure there was a reason for his current exhaustion, but for a few seconds, he struggled to remember what he had done the day before.

His confusion didn't last long however, and as soon as he recalled his actions of killing Zouken and taking Sakura and Shinji with him, he was already out of his room, on his way to check up on his friends, his fatigue forgotten.

Both were exactly where he had left them before going to sleep, Sakura in the guest room and Shinji on the couch, neither of them having moved an inch as far as he could tell. Fortunately, they were still breathing normally, or Shirou might have believed them to be dead or in a coma.

He knew it was normal for people who had been knocked unconscious to not move during their 'sleep', but both siblings had fainted out of shock, and he wasn't clear on the rules that applied in those cases.

He didn't need to worry though. The moment he entered Sakura's room after having checked up on Shinji, the girl let out a soft groan, before she stirred and turned over on her side.

That was the kind of behaviour that indicated one was close to waking. It shouldn't be more than an hour now, he would estimate.

A quick check showed that Shinji was still lying motionlessly on the couch though, which was just as well for Shirou, who wanted to talk with Sakura first anyway.

Only, he wasn't entirely sure what he should be doing right now. Should he just sit on the floor next to her and wait for her to wake up? Should he wake her up immediately? Remove himself from the room to start on breakfast, until she'd call out for someone?

This had the potential to become awkward.

Eventually, Shirou decided to leave the room until he would be called back, to give Sakura some space. He took place in the living room, well within earshot of the guestroom, where he would be able to keep an eye on Shinji as well, deciding to postpone breakfast for now.

As he sat there, Shirou tried to think of what to say to his friends, how he could apologise for missing the clues for such a long time.

Especially during the last months there had been plenty of signs that something had been seriously wrong in the Matou-estate, but he had never connected the dots, content to wait for an opportunity, one that probably wouldn't have presented itself until the siblings were either dead or worse.

He had left them to their fate for far too long, and he wouldn't be surprised if they were at the very least cross with him, perhaps even furious and betrayed.

Not to mention that they now knew him to be a Magus. They were aware now that he had been lying to them for years. They had seen him as their friend, yet he had still kept half of his life hidden from them.

It wouldn't surprise him one bit if they didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore after today.

Shirou himself felt incredibly conflicted about it. On one hand, he had failed to help and protect them. He, someone who wanted to be a hero, had failed in that duty when his friends had needed help. It was something he knew he deserved no forgiveness for.

One the other hand, he did not want to lose them either, especially Sakura. To have to live without the plum-haired girl, to know that she hated him, was a prospect he could only dread immensely.

Perhaps that was why, even though he knew that he didn't deserve their forgiveness, he still hoped for it, deep down in his heart. That he and Sakura would make breakfast together again this morning.

He didn't know what to do about Shinji however. He knew what the boy had done, he had heard it from his own mouth, but he heavily suspected that it hadn't been voluntary.

Zouken had many crimes he'd unfortunately never answer for.

It took about an hour for Sakura to wake up, get her bearings, and try to get to her feet. An hour that, for Shirou, was filled with fretting over increasingly glum scenarios for the upcoming conversation which played over and over in his head.

Shirou didn't notice Sakura wake up, but he did hear the sound of the girl falling back on the ground with a squeak, after her legs gave out from under her.

He was in front of the room in a flash, though he did not open the door yet, choosing to knock instead. There was no sense in unnecessarily scaring the girl by barging in unannounced.

"Sakura. It's me. Can I come in?"

"SENPAI?!" Sakura shrieked from inside, a swishing sound also audible, probably indicating she had pulled her blanket over herself. "W-Wha-? How-? I-Is this y-your house?"

"Yes." Shirou confirmed. "I… I brought you here after I took you out of… out of the basement last night."

"Y-You were really there? …I thought that was a dream." Sakura breathed with slight wonder, clearly relaxing at the sound of his voice, before realising they were talking through a closed door. "Ah, you can come in now."

Shirou did just that, entering the room and taking place on the ground next to the girl, though he kept a respectable distance. Him washing and clothing her a few hours ago was still clear in his mind, even more so now that she was so close again. Fortunately though, he was able to push the blush down before it could become visible. This was absolutely not the time for inappropriate thoughts of any kind.

He also did not think of how well Irisviel's old nightgown fit her, nor did he look at how she seemed to shine with an ethereal light all of a sudden. No, he did not look, and he would flick anyone who said otherwise, into unconsciousness if needed.

So instead, while he was not looking, he quickly checked her for injuries, trying to determine how she felt, or if she was perhaps still in pain anywhere.

She didn't look like anything was hurting her though. She sat on the futon in a relaxed pose, with her hair in disarray and a sleepy look in her eyes. Nothing in her body-language indicated she was experiencing discomfort in any way.

It gladdened Shirou somewhat to know that she was still comfortable in his presence, even if that comfortableness may have been partially caused by a lack of awareness brought about by sleepiness.

The plum-haired girl herself meanwhile was still looking at him with her serene expression, seemingly content with that, before her face scrunched up in thought. She then seemed to come to a realisation, which was promptly followed by panic, the sleepy look disappearing in an instant.

"Senpai!" Sakura began urgently, a note of alarm in her voice that took Shirou aback to hear. "Y-You have to get away. G-Grandfather w-will be h-here s-soon, b-but I t-think I can convince him not to kill you if…"

"Zouken is dead." Shirou quickly reassured her, holding his hands up in a soothing motion. "I killed him a few hours ago, when I took you from the Matou-estate."

"…?"

Sakura's mouth fell open, not a sound coming out after he had made his declaration. She seemed frozen with shock; her stare fixed on him.

"Grandfather is… dead?" She repeated incredulously. "A-Are you sure? I-I saw you destroy him with that beam, but grandfather has a lot of options left even when his body is destroyed."

Her expression now shifted into outright worried. "I once stabbed him, multiple times, and h-he just laughed it off. W-We have t-to do something-"

"Sakura." Shirou interrupted her gently, reaching out to take her hand. "I know that bastard had many tricks up his sleeve, but you don't have to worry. I destroyed all his familiars too, even the ones inside of you. I can assure you that he is completely gone."

Sakura's blinked a few times in confusion, before she placed her hand over her heart, probably to verify his words for herself. The increased smell of water and… something wispy, indicated she was also trying to use some Magecraft, though there was something faintly… weird and familiar about the smell as well.

He wasn't entirely clear on what she was doing exactly, but he didn't say anything, choosing to let her do what she needed to do to convince herself of the truth of his words.

Eventually, she apparently reached the conclusion that he was correct, as the hands dropped at her sides and she sat frozen again for a few moments.

Shirou saw a lot of different emotions flash over her face during those moments. The immense shock was expected, as he had done something that she had probably considered impossible for a long time.

The puzzlement that followed would have been almost adorable to see, if the subject hadn't been this heavy and dire.

The look of realisation that swept across her face was a relief, as Shirou had feared that she would remain in denial about Zouken's dead for a longer time. Especially since he didn't have a body to show her, or any other way of proving the damn bastard was gone.

Those emotions and more shot over Sakura's face, until, at last, it settled on pure, unadulterated relief, her entire body sagging as if relieved from an incredible burden it had been carrying for years. Delight shone from her eyes as she smiled brightly at him, the intensity of it rivalling the coming dawn.

It was a wonderful sight, and Shirou felt content that he had been able to bring her such happiness. He would happily do it a thousand times over, and then some more if needed, if she could keep smiling like that as a result.

He pushed away the content immediately after. He still had to ask Sakura for her forgiveness after all, for leaving her and her brother to their fates for so long.

So, with that in mind, he shifted to his knees, bowing his head in a gesture of apology and regret.

"Sakura." He began, his eyes still looking at the ground. "I know you are probably very angry with me, both for lying and for my ignorance of your suffering, but I just want to sa- _Ugh!?_ "

He didn't get very far. A purple-and-white blur suddenly slammed into him, cutting him off as arms were wrapped around him in a hug.

Shirou was taken completely by surprise by the sudden contact, but his body reacted on instinct as he moved with the force and immediately hugged the girl in turn.

"Thank you, Senpai." Sakura cried, burying her face in his chest. "Thank you, 'sniff', thank you, thank you, thank you. I-I-I, uh, Bwuaaah!"

"A-Ah, y-you're welcome." Shirou stuttered in reflex to being thanked, realising with shock that she was crying. "B-But w-why are you-"

He couldn't finish his question. His mind was reeling too much. Why was Sakura being this affectionate to him? She wasn't supposed to behave like this. This wasn't going at all like he had anticipated.

In his shock, he couldn't think of anything to say, so he kept silent, all the while having a sobbing Sakura in his arms.

"What are you thanking me for?" He eventually asked after regaining his composure, bringing a halt to her continuous mutterings of gratefulness as she peered up at him from his chest. "I thought you would be furious. I left you to your grandfather for years without noticing anything was wrong. I lied to you about me being a Magus-"

"Stupid, 'sniff', Senpai." Sakura interrupted him, burying her face in his chest, taking deep breaths to get her emotions under control again. "O-Of course I'm not angry. I-I always told you, 'sniff', everything was fine at home, so there was no way you could have known about, 'sniff', grandfather. Besides, I never told you I was a Magus either."

"I already knew you were a Magus, or at least from a Magus-family." Shirou argued, feeling she was letting him off the hook way too easily. "I also knew, for months already, that something was really wrong with Zouken, but I still chose to sit by and do nothing about it."

"P-Perhaps, but I don't mind." Sakura answered, before tightening the hug. "Senpai, you saved me. _You saved me_. How could I be angry with you?"

"Because I was too late." Shirou repeated, not understanding why she wasn't seeing it. "Because I should have saved you months ago. I always speak of becoming a hero, but how can I have the right to be one when I missed the suffering of people right in front of my eyes?

"You keep saying so." Sakura said, as she lifted herself up from his chest slightly, before she placed her hands on his cheeks and slightly lifted his head, smiling softly at him. "But Senpai. _I. Don't. Mind._ Just because you didn't want to meddle too much in a situation you didn't know all the details of, or reveal a secret about yourself that would have complicated things between us potentially forever, doesn't mean you failed anyone. I am here now, safe and well, while grandfather is dead, so it's alright."

Shirou made to protest again, but Sakura spoke before he could, a firm note entering her voice.

"That's the end of it, Senpai. You did nothing wrong here, so you don't have to feel guilty or apologise. Just don't."

"…"

Looking into deep, steadfast eyes, Shirou saw just how serious she actually was.

He took a deep breath. She didn't blame him? Not at all? She didn't mind that he had been too blind to see the truth about Zouken?

Was there no limit to her kind-heartedness?

"…I really don't deserve you." He said, feeling a bit of weight being lifted from his shoulders. Not nearly all of it though. Even if Sakura didn't blame him, Shirou still blamed himself. He had messed up, and no amount of forgiveness from Sakura was going to change that.

For the moment however, he could pretend he agreed with her. There was no sense in ruining the mood now that she seemed happy, and he was relieved that his fears about her abandoning him were unfounded. "I really don't deserve any of this."

"I disagree. Senpai deserves every good thing that can possibly happen to him." Sakura argued, letting herself fall down onto his chest again to resume hugging him.

"…I see." Shirou said, looking away from Sakura for a moment to hide just how much he disagreed. "Well then, there is still much more we need to talk about. Will you let me go?"

"Never! Ah, I mean, in a few minutes. Just let me stay like this for a while, please."

Not seeing anything wrong with that, Shirou nodded, cooing internally at another blush on Sakura's face.

True to her words, Sakura kept hugging him and didn't let him go until several minutes had passed, pressing her face against his chest. Shirou meanwhile had to keep his arms around her too, as his one attempt to let go had only gotten him an angry pout.

He hadn't tried again after that.

Shirou didn't mind at all, however. He was sitting comfortably, and after what he had done, or rather, his lack of action, it was the least he could do. Moreover, he couldn't deny having Sakura in his arms was a rather pleasant experience.

They did still have a lot to talk about however, so eventually, after some prodding, she let go of him again, though obviously very reluctantly.

After Sakura sat back on the futon, drawing her legs close to her and shifting to find a comfortable position, Shirou spoke up first.

"So." He began, looking around uncomfortably, all of his preparation for this conversation worthless and forgotten now that they had moved past the whole 'asking for forgiveness'-thing in a few sentences at most. "I killed Zouken, and I am a Magus. I reckon that isn't entirely what you were expecting."

"No… b-but I have to admit that, sometimes, I almost suspected." Sakura admitted shyly, looking down at her lap and thus missing the shocked look he gave her. "Grandfather clearly considered you worthy of his attention, and you seemed to hate each other on first sight. Also, I saw a few books about Norse mythology here and there at your house, along with drawings of Runes."

"Ah, so you saw those." Shirou said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, knowing perfectly well which drawings she was talking about. "I shouldn't have left those lying around I suppose. Was that not absolute proof though, that I am a Magus?"

"Not really." Sakura shook her head, still looking down at her lap. "I could also be a hobby, or something for a project for school, and… well, I suppose I always dismissed the possibility, because I thought that Senpai was too good and kind-hearted to be a Magus."

The redhead could see where she was coming from. Shinji had said much the same, and their reasoning was very understandable. He wasn't really a Magus after all, but a Spell-Caster. The only reason he frequently referred to himself as 'Magus' was because it was quicker and easier than having to explain his reasoning every time.

"But then it turned out Senpai _was_ a Magus all along." Sakura went on, looking up to give him another blinding smile. "And a really powerful one too, powerful enough to save me from Zouken. You're even more amazing than I always thought. I love you, Senpai."

She continued smiling for a second, only for her face to slowly redden as she seemed to realise what she just said out loud.

With another squeak of embarrassment, she hid herself under her blankets, trying to hide her red face from his sight, mumbling muffled apologies.

It was adorable to see, and Shirou had to hold himself back from patting her head.

"I love you too, Sakura." He smiled as he reached out to pat her head after all, losing the battle with his baser desires. "Don't you have any questions for me though? I thought you would have been curious."

"Ah." Sakura whispered, peaking up at him from under her blanket with warm, trusting eyes. "I trust Senpai. You can tell me as much or as little as you want."

Okay now, that didn't make any sense at all. Even if she wasn't angry with him, she should be curious at the very least. She had every right to demand a full explanation, but now she said he could decide what to tell her?

"Sakura." He frowned. "That doesn't make any sen-"

"After all, you already saved me from grandfather." She interrupted him with a smile, her cheeks still tinted slightly red. "So I know I can trust you completely. I'll just follow your lead on this. Don't worry about me."

Shirou fell silent yet again after hearing that. He was of course happy that Sakura still considered him a friend, as someone to be trusted, even after learning he had been lying to her for so long, but didn't this go a little far?

Perhaps it was due to her mind still trying to reconcile itself with her newfound freedom. It must have been a very shocking experience after all.

There was really no question about how much he would reveal to her though. She was his dearest friend, and with Zouken out of the way, also the most trustworthy person he knew, who would never tell anyone his secrets.

"From now on, I'd like there to be no more secrets between us." He said softly, watching as Sakura perked up at his words. "I'll tell you everything about me."

"Learning more about Senpai." Sakura muttered, a dreamy look in her eyes. "This is the best day ever."

"…Ahem, r-right." Shirou stuttered, slightly taken aback by her enthusiasm. "I-I hardly think it'll be all that interesting though."

Okay, maybe he deserved that deadpan stare Sakura sent him in response. His life was many things, but uninteresting it was not, even he could see that.

"A-Anyway." He continued, trying to cover his mishap. "I-I guess it all started in the Great Fire, where I lost my memory. I have told you about that already, but… I didn't tell you everything."

A deep breath. "When I was lying there, dying, after having ignored everyone begging for my help, dad eventually came to save me. He saved me with Avalon, think of it as a Mystic Code that can heal people, and got me out of the fire, and while he did so, he had this… air around him, this happiness in his eyes, something that made him seem happy. That was when I, perhaps unconsciously, decided that I wanted to save people too. To obtain that happiness, but also to atone for my sins."

"You don't have any sins to atone for." Sakura immediately said, a pleading note in her voice as she repeated something she had been telling him for years now. "There was nothing you could have done to save those people, you know that. Senpai, none of it was in any way your fault."

Shirou didn't say anything, looking away instead. They'd had this discussion multiple times already, but neither had been able to convince the other so far. No matter what Sakura said, Shirou knew he had sinned. He could at least have looked at those people, he could at least have tried to help them, but he had only cared about himself in there.

"At first, dad and I lived together peacefully." He went on, noticing how Sakura wilted slightly at his blunt dismissal of the topic. "But after I told him I wanted to become a hero, he started training me, both in Magical and Mundane things."

"Emiya-san was also a Magus?" Sakura asked with wide eyes, before blinking and bonking her forehead. "Of course he was, stupid question."

"Not stupid at all." Shirou protested. "But yes, dad was a Magus. He trained me for a while, mainly focusing on providing me with as much information as possible. Fighting and spellcasting I could learn on my own, he said, but I had to have a basic understanding of the Moonlit World before he died."

Sakura nodded again, showing she still followed him.

"Then he died, as you know, leaving me to follow his dream. Before that though, he taught me quite a lot, Magecraft, tactics, politics, whatever could be useful. After he passed away however, training slowed down a bit for me."

"That is completely understandable." Sakura said gently, taking his hand in hers. He gave her a grateful smile for that, before continuing.

"A few months later, while I was walking through the forest next to the temple, a storm came in. It was no normal storm though, as all the lightning, wind and anything else seemed centred around one point in the sky. That point, as it turned out, was this."

With those words, Shirou made Mjolnir appear, the hammer materialising in a shower of sparks, as if trying to be dramatic.

"A hammer?" Sakura asked in confusion, before her eyes narrowed as she spotted the inscription on the side, which had apparently changed into Kanji for her. "'Whosoever lifts this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor'?"

"Indeed. After it came down from the sky, I wanted to hide it at once, since it was obviously a product of Magecraft of some sort, but it turned out that the inscription wasn't merely a boastful hoax after all. It actually bestowed Thor's essence onto me."

Sakura pondered for a moment, mumbling words like 'Thor' and 'god of thunder', before her head shot up again as she seemingly realised something. "You are the one who caused all the storms during the last months, Senpai?"

"Ah, yes." Shirou admitted, again rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "That was me. As I tried to say, this hammer, Mjolnir, did in fact give me some of Thor's power. I just had a little trouble controlling it at first, so I caused some storms that were much bigger than I intended, and later I was killing Zouken's familiars with them."

"Wow." Sakura breathed, looking at him with starstruck eyes. "You were chosen as a god's successor? That's amazing."

Surprised at her quick acceptance of his frankly ludicrous claims, Shirou nodded his head pensively in response to her words. "I suppose I _am_ meant to be Thor's successor; Mjolnir certainly seems to think so."

"Mjolnir thinks so?" Sakura asked, confusion replacing awe for a second.

"It's sentient, or at least partially." Shirou smiled at her, nodding emphatically at her shocked gasp, as he too had been very surprised about that. "Anyway, if you don't have any more questions about this part, I'll continue my story now. If you don't understand something or if I'm going too fast, just tell me, okay?"

"Understood."

"Alright, so I picked up the hammer, not really expecting much, when it suddenly gave me this really big boost in power." Shirou went on, lightly flexing his arms. "Not only physical strength either, as I discovered during some of my training sessions. I also have massively increased durability; the quality of my Magic Circuits got a lot higher and I even got some extra abilities from it that I certainly didn't possess before."

"Training sessions?" Sakura asked, tilting her head in a cute way, before a glint of excitement appeared in her eyes. "Can I come along? When did Senpai even have time for those though?"

"Of course you can come along." Shirou promised. "And I had a lot of time free during the nights. I only need two to three hours of sleep a day, leaving me with enough time to go out and train, or to go on my missions, between you leaving for the night and coming back in the morning."

"…Your missions?"

"Yeah, I mean, I still hope to become a hero after all, so I thought I'd do something good with the power bestowed upon me." Shirou explained, rubbing the back of his head. "Like taking down criminals and other enemies preying on the innocent."

"Taking down…?! Senpai, you mean you have been fighting with people for… for weeks now?"

"Taking down a gang that was hiding in an abandoned building was literally the first thing that this hammer had me do." Shirou sighed, in part nostalgia and part lingering annoyance, before tightening his hold on Sakura's hand as her expression turned anxious. "But don't worry. With the help and the extra power Mjolnir gave me, I was never in any danger."

"Are you sure?" She implored, pleading for an affirmation. "You won't get hurt because you go out to fight?"

Shirou would really like to confirm that he wouldn't be harmed in any way, but the Dead Apostle and especially the Phantasmal Beast, which had pierced his torso with three of its tentacles, would make a liar out of him if he did that.

"…I cannot promise that."

"S-Senpai." Sakura looked close to crying again, so Shirou leaned in to grab her shoulders and draw her into another hug.

"Hey now, there's no need to cry over me." He said soothingly, mind racing as he tried to think of something to set her at ease. "How's this? I cannot promise I won't get hurt, but I can promise that I will always come back to you. I give you my word on that."

Sakura peered up at him from his chest, studying him intently for any signs of lying, before she nodded once in acceptance.

"Very well." Shirou sighed in relief as he let go of her again, fully intending to keep that promise to the very best of his ability. "Alright, where was I? Oh yes, taking down that first gang. Well, after that, I spent just about every night fighting the criminals of Fuyuki-City. I was making quite a lot of progress with it too, but then I stumbled upon something much bigger than I expected."

"Is the mafia here?" Sakura immediately asked, pressing her hands to her mouth in shock. "Is that why so many people have drowned in recent years? Because they are sleeping with the fishes?"

"…No." Shirou answered, wondering who could have put that idea in her head. On second thought, definitely Taiga. "What I meant was that I started finding criminals who smelled like Magecraft, and who had been hypnotised in the past by several Magi. They had been ordered to abduct people who wouldn't be missed, so that the Magi could use those people for their experiments."

"What?" Sakura asked, looking aghast at his words. "W-What kind of cruel…? Those people sound like grandfather!"

"Technically speaking, it's what every First-Rate Magus would do." Shirou told her gently. "The ones I am talking about though were taking it to frightening levels, having gangs of hypnotised criminals kidnap hundreds, if not thousands of people in multiple cities. It was a whole lot of work to track them all down, but I think I did oka-"

"Senpai, are you Rakurai?" Sakura suddenly asked.

"…Ah, w-well, I suppose that's what my alter ego is called, yeah." Shirou answered, caught off guard by the sudden question about his other identity.

It probably made sense though for Sakura to have heard of Japan's current 'hottest topic' though. She was smart girl; he shouldn't have been surprised she was able to put the pieces together.

"So you are the one who has been saving so many people; that's so amazing." She said in an awed voice. "Are the stories about you true? Did you really catch all the gangs in Fuyuki-City? Did you really save all those people they claim you saved?"

"W-Well, y-yes I suppose, but it's hardly amazing, I just did what everyone would have done." He mumbled, not really comfortable with the praise. "I made a lot of mistakes too, you know. I mean, I had no idea what to do with the people I rescued. I just got them out of danger, but surely, that isn't enough on its own? I mean, I tried helping them as well as I could, but I'm completely sure that I messed up ofte-"

"Fujimura-Sensei was right too! Rakurai really is a magical vigilante who saves people with his awesome magical weapon. Senpai is amazing." Sakura said, nothing but certainty in her voice. "Ah, I am sorry for the interruption, please continue with your story."

"…"

Shirou coughed into his hand, unable to stop a blush from forming at Sakura's honest praise, and of course the reminded of Taiga's unsettlingly true assumptions. In an effort to hide it though, he did as she said and continued.

"I questioned some of those criminals about their circumstances, and after breaking several mind-blocks, I was able to obtain a list of cities where the Magi had struck, and where I would have to search for clues about their whereabouts." He explained.

"I didn't find many clues there, but I have to admit I lost of lot of time trying to end the threats to the inhabitants of those cities. Usually, it was just criminals, but twice now, I had to face something more. I had to fight a Dead Apostle and a Phantasmal Beast during the past months, far greater opponents than any other I met."

"A Phantasmal Beast?" Sakura questioned, looking understandably shocked. "I thought those didn't exist anymore."

"Apparently, they do, and they are really ferocious opponents." Shirou sighed, thinking back on the Beast and the Apostle, who had pushed him further in battle than anyone else ever had, except for Bazett of course. That woman was a better warrior and a greater danger than the previous two combined. "But they weren't nearly as bad to face as _Oni_."

He spat out the name of the most despicable man he had ever met, his disgust for the criminal palpable in the room.

"He was a monster, someone who enjoyed causing pain. He abducted and hurt people, for no other reason than that he considered it amusing." He explained, clenching his fists at the memories. "Even when I tried arresting him, he fought until the bitter end, trying to kill me and several innocents, two girls he had chained up to a wall in his room. He… He tried using a grenade, and then a gun to shoot the girls. I fought him over the weapons and I… I killed him. Broke his spine, his entire body, in two."

He expected at least a flinch from Sakura at his retelling of his first kill, but she didn't even bat an eye, instead leaning forward to embrace him again.

"Was that when Senpai was so sad?" She whispered soothingly. "Because you shouldn't be sad. That Oni was evil, you were saving those two girls, and it was an accident, in self-defence even. I think that makes it okay."

"I know that now." He assured her softly, hugging her back. "It was just something that I had to realise. You and the others really helped me with that."

"I'm glad I was able to help Senpai." Sakura smiled as she let go of him again.

From there on, he had to take a few steps back in his story, as he told her of the police and their reactions to his vigilantism.

"They don't exactly agree with what I'm doing, but I suppose that is only logical. I am breaking the law by being a vigilante after all. To be honest though, outside of the articles about me every now and then, I never noticed much of being chased by the police at all."

Frankly, the only thing that bothered him about the law-enforcement chasing him was that they had seen it fit to dedicate an entire national investigation to him, led by that Osaki Koyo.

"I mean, can you believe that." He said in agitation, not noticing Sakura having to smother a giggle at his indignation. "So much money and working hours better spend on something else, wasted on me instead. I did not go out to bully the police, yet it seems that's what I'm doing now. That's not even the worst either by the way. I have fans, Sakura. Actual fans on websites, who follow me during their free time, like I am an idol or something."

Sakura had to bite her fist now to prevent herself from laughing out loud. Senpai was really working himself into a frenzy over this. It would probably be for the best that she never told him Ayako was one of those fans, even if she was sure his reaction would be very funny.

Eventually, Shirou stopped his rant, sheepishly apologising again for bothering her with his personal problems, though Sakura waved it off.

"I have to admit though, that despite all my efforts during several months, I was barely any closer to capturing the Magi than when I began when I had only one city, Hikone, left on my list."

"Hikone? Isn't that the place where we had our swimming exam?" Sakura asked in confusion, lightly scratching her head.

"Yeah, and I assure you, I consider it very strange as well." Shirou said. The timing had been impeccable after all, and he had been able to find the clues he wanted on the very first night. It was probably just a whole lot of luck, but it was still something to wonder about.

"I was just about to leave the hotel that night after our swimming exam, to hunt some criminals and search for clues, when I picked up the scent of a Magus very close to the hotel, so I followed that back inside. It turned out it was a mercenary, who was trying to kidnap Tohsaka-san for the Magi I was hunting, to turn her into a research-subject most likely. That guy tried abducting her right out of your room."

"I see." Sakura mumbled. "I am happy Senpai was there to protect us."

"I am happy I was there too." He assured her with a smile. "That mercenary then told me where the Magi were hiding, in a town called Hiraizumi, so after I delivered him to Kotomine, the local priest I mean, he works at the Burial Agency, I went there to take them down myself. That was only two nights ago, or three now I suppose."

"Oh, are you alright, Senpai?" Sakura asked him concernedly, ready to start looking him over for any possible injuries. "Did you succeed? Are you hurt in any way? Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I succeeded, without even a scratch on me." Shirou said, smiling at Sakura awed gasp. "I got them all, though three of them committed suicide before I could capture them."

Sakura did in fact flinch at that, to which he nodded sadly.

"But then I had three corpses and two prisoners in my Vault, my pocket dimension I mean." He went on.

"Pocket dimension?" Sakura asked, eyes opening wide again. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." Shirou then reached into his Vault and pulled out several pieces of blank paper, knowing that to Sakura, it would have seemed as if he was reaching into nothing before suddenly holding something. "It is a trans-dimensional space that keeps everything that I put into it in stasis."

"You can use it to preserve ingredients, and always have them with you?" Sakura exclaimed. "That is fantastic."

"It is." Shirou agreed whole-heartedly, feeling immensely happy Sakura had instantly seen the best use of it. "Though, I have mainly been using it to carry supplies and sometimes prisoners, like the aforementioned Magi."

"Ah, yes, you still had those." Sakura said, shaking her head to regain her focus. "Do you still have them with you now?"

"No, fortunately not. A few days later, the previous evening in fact, someone entered the castle of the Magi and tripped the alarm I had left there to warn me of possible associates. I went back to the castle and fought the intruders, but then it turned out they were actually also hunting these Magi."

"An accidental confrontation between those on the same side." Sakura stated, hitting her fist on her palm in understanding. "Just like in Ayako's comics. Did it end up alright though?"

"Yes, it did. It turned out one of them was actually a lord of the Clocktower, and a pretty important one too. Fortunately, he wasn't of the overly prideful sort, and was willing to talk, so we reached an agreement. He would get the Magi and I would get their bounties, a favour from him, and a sponsorship for when I want to enter the Clocktower."

Sakura nodded again, seemingly deep in thought. "How did Senpai get back so fast though? If you were there this evening, shouldn't you still be travelling?"

"Oh, no. Mjolnir allows me to fly." He explained, lifting the hammer slightly to make his point. "Quite fast too, I made the trip back in barely more than an hour."

Sakura didn't even look surprised anymore, resignation now prevalent in her body language.

"That's cool." Was all she said in response to his statement.

Shirou smiled again.

"When I got back from that though, I encountered Shinji on my way home." Shirou's smile made place for a grim expression. "I dragged him along to a park and interrogated him. After a while, he told me-, well, he told me everything. After that, I made my way over to the Matou-estate and killed Zouken. I took you here afterwards."

"…Oh?"

"Shinji is here too by the way, he fainted in the park some time after I left, and I couldn't leave him out there."

"…"

"…Sakura?"

Sakura didn't react, her previous expression, one of fond resignation and relief, slowly making place for a forlorn and self-depreciating one, as she shrunk in on herself. Her eyes, previously full of light, seemed to darken as if something suddenly pressed down on her spirit.

"He told you everything." She repeated softly, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes again. "Even about my f-former family? The t-trainings? What those Worms made me feel and do?"

"Sakura…"

"I'm sorry, Senpai. I'm s-so sorry. I-I should have told you that… that I am defiled." She cried, looking around his room as if it was the first time she saw it, as if she just realised she was horribly out of place. "I-I shouldn't be here; Why am I still here? I don't deserve you. I chased after you and stayed with you even though I had those worms inside me, even though I had those impure thoughts of you. Even though I could have hurt you when I lost control. I am despicable. I should just go back home and stay there… Mhumpf!"

Sakura had been in process of getting to her feet, to run away from the house and remove her impure self from her Senpai's presence, but she didn't get any further than half-way, as Shirou resolutely placed his hand over her mouth, cutting off any further nonsense, and pushed her back into a seating position on the futon.

"Defiled?" He repeated in absolute disbelief, the intensity of his gaze striking the girl silent. "You? Sakura, you aren't defiled because of what _others_ did to you. You aren't filthy or unworthy because of things you had no control over. That is absolute nonsense, poison that Zouken poured into your ears, and I don't want to hear it again. Understood?"

Shirou couldn't believe it. Why on Earth would Sakura think such horrible things about herself? She wasn't at fault for anything that had happened to her, of course not. Everything could be blamed on Tokiomi and Zouken, no one else, and least of all her.

Sakura was silent for a long time after he spoke, even after Shirou removed his hand from her mouth. She just stared at him, intently, not even blinking.

Fearing she didn't quite understand yet, Shirou tried to make it clearer, scooting closer to her and reaching out to wipe the tears from her cheeks, before pressing his forehead against hers, in a way he had seen people on Taiga's drama-shows comfort each other.

It always seemed to work in those shows…

"You aren't defiled because of the worms, or whatever they made you do or put you through. That's is all Zouken's fault, not yours. You are the best and purest person I know, and I am sure that everyone would agree with me. Don't let yourself be influenced by a man who should have died centuries ago."

Sakura still didn't react, only making soft, confused noises as she raised her hands to cup her own cheeks. She bit her lip, screwing her eyes shut as she began breathing erratically, before heavy sobs started wracking her body.

Shirou almost panicked at the sight of Sakura crying like that, quickly trying to create some distance, fearing he might have done something entirely wrong.

He was halfway to getting up to his feet however, when Sakura suddenly tackled him full on for the second time that morning, his imbalance causing him to fall on his back again with Sakura once more on top of him.

The plum-haired girl was not even capable of speech anymore at this point. She was crying loudly, tears and snot streaming over her face as she clutched onto him, her body shaking as she let all of her bottled-up emotions out for the first time in years.

Shirou, despite his general denseness, had a pretty good idea of what was going on with her now.

It was somewhat similar to how his father had looked and behaved after Shirou had told him he didn't blame the man for the Fire, or any effects it had on him. True, his father hadn't cried, but the feeling of relief he had exuded was pretty similar to Sakura's current emotions.

Those were the emotions of someone who had been saved, not just physically, but also mentally and in any other way possible, something that went far beyond just being dragged out of immediate danger.

He wrapped his arms around her again, hugging her strongly. He might not be the best at social interaction, but even he wasn't idiotic enough to not know what to do at a time like this.

They lied like that for a while, until Sakura got her emotions slightly under control again.

"Do you-, do you really- 'hiccup' -mean what you said?" She asked him through her tears, looking as fragile as a porcelain doll, her eyes filled with a desperate hope.

"Of course I do." Shirou said from his position below her. "I wouldn't have said it otherwise, and I think every decent person out there would agree with me."

"B-But I-I-I…" She stuttered, not looking convinced yet, prompting Shirou to lightly cuff her over the head.

"Look, if I can accept that I'm not a failure of a hero because I was months too late with saving you, can you not accept that you aren't defiled or impure merely because Zouken tried his hardest at breaking you? Unsuccessfully, I might add."

"You aren't a failure." Sakura mumbled in reflex.

"And you aren't defiled." Shirou repeated, smiling as brightly as he could at the girl, who, at last, seemed to understand what he was getting at. She didn't seem to agree entirely, and neither did she seem fully convinced, but it was clear to both that in Shirou's opinion, she was not defiled or impure in the slightest, and for them, that was enough.

Sakura lifted her head from its position on his chest and pushed herself up until she was sitting on his stomach, her hands leaning on his shoulders.

She still didn't look entirely convinced of his words, and Shirou suspected she wouldn't be for a long time, but the fact that she was mulling it over was a start at least. A moment later she seemed to have come to her conclusion, and she smiled at him.

Now, he had seen both Tohsaka and Ayako smile before, when they were very happy with him, and those smiles could only be called beautiful, but Sakura's current smile was undoubtedly the most angelic of them all.

"Thank you, Senpai." She whispered, before looking down at his wet shirt with a guilty expression. "I'm sorry for that."

"Don't be." Shirou said with shake of his head. "You don't have to apologise for things you can do nothing about."

Sakura didn't seem to agree entirely, but she nodded nonetheless.

The next few minutes were spent cleaning up for a bit, with Sakura wiping her face with a few tissues and Shirou changing into another shirt. After they were done, they went back to the story, though with the mood a lot lighter than before.

There wasn't really much left to tell however, as they had already gotten past Zouken's death.

"So I had the both of you here in my house. Then I waited for you to wake up, which you eventually did. I suppose that is the really short version of everything that happened in my life so far." Shirou sighed. "I probably left out a lot, but I'll tell you once I think of it."

"That's fine, Senpai." Sakura chirped happily. "I'm in no hurry to know everything."

She then looked away shyly, allowing her hair to fall in front of her face, as her eyes peaked at Shirou from within her bangs.

"But if the story's finished, could you perhaps… show me a bit more of what you can do now?" Her voice grew even softer. "A-As a Magus, or g-god I guess."

"Ah, right. I will." Shirou agreed with a firm nod, sitting up straighter and reclaiming Mjolnir from where it had come down when Sakura had tackle-hugged him. "The first thing you need to know is that this hammer gave me a considerable enhancement to everything I already had. My Magic Circuits are much better than they were before, and my physical capabilities increased a lot. I can lift cars now, break through stone wall with my fists, and I can take high-caliber bullets without even a bruise."

"I suppose that's needed when you fight Phantasmal Beasts and Dead Apostles." Sakura nodded, seemingly unsurprised by his words. She did let out a squeak though when Shirou grabbed her at her sides and lifted her above his head from his sitting position, showing her a bit of his strength.

Not that she was heavy. Even though the muscles in his arms were shot to hell, they barely gave a twitch in response to him lifting her.

It took a few seconds for him to realise though that he was being very inappropriate with his action. Touching Sakura, and even lifting her up, without permission was way over the line of what could be considered acceptable.

The playful mood and his impulse had made him completely forget about that!

He immediately let her down again, shame colouring his cheeks as he apologised. "A-Ack, I-I'm so sorry, Sakura. I should have thought before I did that-"

"Ah, d-don't worry, Senpai." She immediately reassured him, a faint blush on her face as she rested her hands on the places where he had held her. "I-I don't mind. Please continue."

"…Right. Next to that, I also have what I call 'the mysterious power', which is like Prana, except… well, different, I guess." He continued quickly, trying to put that happening behind them. "It is a Mystic power source, but from I have felt, much more powerful than Prana, and I believe it is almost sentient even, just like Mjolnir."

"That's… a little scary." Sakura mumbled, a sweatdrop appearing on the side of her head. "Are you sure they, Mjolnir and this power I mean, are without negative consequences, Senpai?"

"Quite sure." Shirou said with a nod. "Both are powerful enough to not need me should they be planning something bad, and from what I have noticed up until now, they generally do what I want them to do."

Sakura looked at him somewhat doubtfully for a few more seconds, but relented after that, giving a nod of acquiescence.

"I also gained a proficiency with Runes of any kind, and of course the ability to control the weather." Shirou went on. "As a result of that, I can also control lightning and wind now."

To give credence to his words, he coated his hand in lightning, and then created a miniature storm right above their heads. He didn't make it rain, but he did make mini-lightning bolts flash between the tiny clouds.

"I suppose the strangest power I got though, is the Cleansing Power, as I've named it."

"That sounds… impressive, yet slightly intimidating, Senpai."

"It is pretty cool." Shirou agreed. "It basically is a power that removes and eradicates everything that I consider unnatural. Dead Apostles and Zouken's familiars for instance. I can also heal wounds though, I don't know the theory behind that. Perhaps I consider wounds unnatural…?"

"That sounds like an amazing power to have." Sakura said, shaking off her unease at a power that was both intent based to such a degree and also sounded so potent. "Is that everything, or…?"

"Not at all. I also have Mjolnir here. This hammer allows me to fly at great speed, it has an immense innate power that amplifies my strikes considerably, I can use it to fire lightning bolts and it also gave me a considerable level of Magic Resistance."

Sakura nodded slowly at his words.

"Not to mention that it gave me this armour." The redhead continued, happy he could finally show it to someone, materialising it on his body. "It's very durable, Magic Resistant and self-repairing, and Mjolnir said it has a lot of functions I haven't even found yet."

"My knight in shining armour." Sakura whispered with a smile and a blush, too soft for Shirou to hear.

"I can also use the Cleansing Power to create this really complicated Runic Array that can be used to clean up the environment of a large place. It takes a lot of energy, but it worked well in the one city I used it on-"

"It cleans the environment?" Sakura interrupted him incredulously, the blush disappearing at once. "And it works well? But you have only used it on one city? Senpai, we have discussed the problems of the environment so often with Fujimura-Sensei, but you had a power to fix it for months and you didn't use it?"

"…I completely forgot about that." Shirou admitted, palming his face, chiding himself for being so stupid as to basically forget about that array for so long. "Alright, next time I'm visiting a city, I'm using that array again."

"Why not on Fuyuki-City itself?" Sakura asked, cocking her head to the side.

"That Runic Array costs a lot of power, making it very noticeable." Shirou explained. "I am trying to hide myself from Tohsaka-san and Kotomine, so using it here would be unwise."

Sakura's face clouded over slightly at the mention of the girl whom Shirou now knew to be her sister, but she shook it off quickly.

"I understand, it would be unwise indeed." She smiled. "Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"I suppose I have told you everything, at least as far as I can think of at the moment." Shirou said, digging through his memory but not finding anything else he could tell her. "Should anything else occur to me, I'll tell you right away, promise."

"Thank you Senpai." Sakura professed again. "Thank you for telling me so much about yourself. I would do the same, but I… you already know everything of note, I suppose."

Shirou nodded, his eyes cast downwards. He indeed knew everything, just how bad her life had been. He had no words of comfort to offer her that wouldn't sound hollow, but he also didn't want to do nothing. So in the end, he decided to hug her again.

She didn't take long to respond, hugging him back and resting her face in the crook of his neck. Shirou could feel her sigh in content, and he tentatively hoped hugging her had been the correct thing to do.

"We should probably make breakfast now." Sakura suddenly said, lifting her head from its position. "We can't let Fujimura-sensei starve, can we?"

Shirou blinked at the seemingly random topic, before he smiled.

"Yes, let us go to the kitchen." He agreed, getting up from the ground, hiding the stab of pain that shot through him, Sakura following a moment later. "We can't have her go hungry. Now that I killed Zouken, we'll have to convince her to let you stay here after all."

Sakura blinked at that, before she made an o-face, probably only now realising she needed a place to stay now that her grandfather was dead.

Shirou was of course more than happy to have her stay here. Shinji too if it was needed, though he was unsure if the blue-haired boy would accept it.

Still, as they walked towards the kitchen together, his senses still incredibly dulled and his head still feeling as if it was about to explode, Shirou felt a flicker of warmth inside his chest.

He had made a step forward in pursuing his dream.

' _I-I did it. I actually managed to do it. Dad, if you are watching, I hope you are proud.'_

' _I managed to save someone.'_

* * *

Exiting her house, Taiga wasted no time in making her way over to her little brother's residence, in order to score herself some breakfast for this morning.

It truly was something to look forward to, as Shirou's cooking-skills were unparalleled by any other person Taiga had met so far. Ever since the redhead had taken up cooking, Taiga's mornings were something to look forward to.

However, she didn't really enjoy those mornings anymore, no matter how much food there was. After all, a very essential part had been missing for two days now, which was two days too many.

It just wasn't the same without Sakura. Taiga missed her docile and kind presence in the room, and so did Shirou, if his fretting and distracted silences during the meals were anything to go by.

Lately, she'd also heard from Ayako that Sakura was apparently actively dodging everyone she knew, refusing to talk with any of them. Even Issei, as a relatively neutral party, had no success in talking to her.

Shirou had told her it was most likely her grandfather's work in action. Taiga couldn't fathom though why he would forbid Sakura to visit the Emiya-residence. What did… Zouken was it? gain from that?

She had planned on asking Sakura herself, but for some reason, she could never find the girl at her school. While the thought that Sakura was actively avoiding her had entered her mind, she had immediately dismissed it. After all, who would avoid big sis Taiga? Definitely not Sakura.

Well, in the absolute worst case that Zouken was a child abuser who was mistreating Sakura, as she started to suspect now, she knew a few guys who would be more than happy to 'deal' with him.

Anyway, she was aware that she could be impulsive at times, so perhaps it would be best to discuss this with Shirou and Ayako first. From what she knew of the two, which was quite a lot if she did say so herself, Shirou would probably protest against 'dealing' with Zouken out of principle, while Ayako would acknowledge that it was an option, but only for when things went really, really wrong.

In the end, Taiga would admit that having Zouken 'dealt with' should be saved for last. She should first try to find other options that showed a little less disregard for the law.

Those were issues for later however. Breakfast first.

Entering Shirou's house was easy enough, she had both the key and Shirou's permission to use it when she saw fit. She was, after all, his acting guardian.

Only, when she entered the hallway, she couldn't hear anyone in the kitchen. There were no sounds of cooking meeting her, not even when she went into the dining room. A quick glance into the kitchen told her there was indeed no one preparing breakfast.

Well, no matter. She was a little early anyway, and oversleeping a bit was an innocent problem that plagued many teenagers all around the world. It was a free day too, no school or anything to worry about. She would just wake him up now and-

…Why was Matou Shinji lying on the couch in the living room?

Taiga froze as she saw the blue-haired boy, a pillow under his head and a blanket over his body, sleeping peacefully, as if he had every right in the world to be there.

She closed her eyes, rubbed them with her hands, and opened them again.

It made no difference; Shinji was still there.

Okay, there were several possible explanations for that, the best and most likely one of them being that he was finally done with Zouken, had left his house, and needed a place to sleep for the night.

Did that mean that Sakura was also here? Taiga certainly hoped so. Getting out of the house, probably against their grandfather's wishes, was a good first step in getting them away from him completely.

Okay, if Sakura was indeed here, then, considering she was Shirou's not-quite-yet-girlfriend and thus more important than Shinji, it was likely she had gotten the guestroom.

Sakura and Shirou were probably still asleep. Who knew at what time the poor dears had fled their house after all? Taiga's breakfast could wait, their rest was more important. She would just wait in the living room, read a newspaper or something.

As she was trying to be a responsible adult however, Taiga decided to check up on all three of them first, to make sure they were all okay after what had no doubt been a very tiring and tense night.

A wise decision, for it turned out that Shinji had large hand-shaped bruises on his throat, as if someone had held him there with great force. Further study also showed he had more bruises on his limbs and maybe even on his torso.

Whatever had happened last night, it certainly hadn't been calm or peaceful.

After making sure Shinji had no injuries that needed treatment, Taiga rushed further into the house, on her way to the bedchambers. She had to see how Sakura and Shirou were, and if they were hurt as well.

She did have enough sense to stay quiet though. If they were fine, it wouldn't do to wake them up without due cause.

There was no one in Shirou's room when she checked however, which was quite concerning, but maybe, hopefully, he was somewhere else in the house. Surely, Shinji wouldn't have gone to sleep unless the other two were fine as well?

She could only pray for it.

Her prayer was heard! When she arrived at the guestroom and took a peek inside through the half-opened door, relief washed through her. Both Shirou and Sakura were sitting there, Sakura on the futon in a nightgown and Shirou on the floor right next to her. Both were smiling and clearly okay.

They were also wrapped up in a conversation, to the point where the normally so observant Shirou hadn't even noticed her standing in the hallway.

Taiga knew it wasn't proper at all to eavesdrop on her wards, but curiosity got to her and she couldn't help but try and listen for in a bit, shifting away from the opening to hide herself from their sight.

"Thank you for telling me. It's fine that you forgot some things, Senpai. I'm in no hurry to know everything."

That was Sakura's voice. Clearly, she had arrived at the end of some kind of story that Shirou had been telling. A pity she had apparently missed it all, but probably also for the best.

She was about to storm in to announce herself, to tease those two a bit about their close position to each other and how they had 'clearly' spent the night together, when Sakura went on talking, and said some words that made Taiga very curious.

"But if the story's finished, could you perhaps… show me a bit more about what you can do now?"

Those words were followed by some inaudible mumbling, but Taiga was too busy with being confused to listen more closely. What Shirou could do? Like what, cooking? Taking care of the house? Being good at school? Surely, Sakura would already have a good idea of Shirou's many talents?

"Ah, right. I will." That was Shirou's voice this time. "The first thing you need to know is that this hammer gave me a considerable enhancement to everything I already had. My Magic Circuits are much better than they were before, and my physical capabilities increased a lot. I can lift cars now, break through stone wall with my fists, and I can take high-caliber bullets without even a bruise."

That… was quite the boast to make. Taiga wasn't sure what to make of those words, even when she saw him lift Sakura above his head, from a sitting position, seemingly without any strain whatsoever, even thought that was easily a bodybuilder feat.

It was cute though how Sakura and he reacted to his brazen action. Lots of blushes all around, it was honestly adorable.

Shirou then continued, telling Sakura about a sentient Mystic power source that he had, which was, according to him at least, quite powerful.

Sakura expressed some very valid-sounding concerns about that sentience, but Shirou waved them off, before he mentioned that he had a 'proficiency with Runes', whatever that meant, and that he could control the weather.

Taiga was really sceptical about that claim, until Shirou suddenly make sparks of lightning appear in his hand, seemingly out of nothing, and also created a freaking mini-storm in the room.

What did they say about scepticism again? When presented with irrefutable evidence, change your opinion or be a fool? Because that seemed evidence enough.

The conversation then became even more complicated, something about a Cleansing Power destroying everything Shirou didn't like, and healing everything he did like. At least, that was what it came down to for Taiga.

Shirou also revealed a hammer, that was super powerful and allowed him to fly apparently, and armour, that just appeared out of nowhere on his body. Oh, and they were talking about cleaning the environment with Shirou's power, and keeping it hidden from Tohsaka of all people, as well as Kotomine. Wasn't that the priest?

Taiga was deeply confused by everything Shirou had said, but despite that, she could barely suppress a squeal of excitement upon seeing the teenagers hug each other after they had concluded their conversation. Strange powers and circumstances or not, that was seriously cute, even more than the lifting-incident.

After a little while though, they separated again and got to their feet. Taiga's sharp eyes didn't miss the wince that Shirou gave at the action though, even if Sakura did.

"We should probably make breakfast now." Sakura said. "We can't let Fujimura-sensei starve, can we?"

"Yes, let us go to the kitchen." Shirou agreed with his not-quite-yet-girlfriend. "We can't have her go hungry. Now that I killed Zouken, we'll have to convince her to let you stay here after all."

With those words, they made for the door and entered the hallway, where Taiga herself was of course no longer present.

She was literally sprinting away now, as fast and silent as she could, to reach the dining room before the teens would see her standing in front of their door.

Once she sat herself down at the table, having remained unseen, preparing to pretend she had been waiting there since she'd come into the house, she thought back on the last words she'd heard.

' _Now that I killed Zouken'._

That was what Shirou had said, wasn't it? That was what he had told Sakura. That he had killed Zouken already.

Taiga did not know what to think of that.

Now, don't get her wrong. The man's death didn't bother her at all, she had been contemplating on having him killed herself after all. It was more that it had been _Shirou_ who had killed him that shocked her so.

She didn't doubt for a moment that he had spoken the truth. Shirou didn't boast or lie, especially not about subjects like that. Her dear little brother, who normally even refused to gossip or trashtalk anyone, had killed someone. He had killed the grandfather of his best friend, and he didn't even sound regretful about it.

Not to mention the whole thing with his 'powers and abilities', abilities humans weren't supposed to have. Humans weren't supposed to control the weather, or punch through stone walls, or create armour out of nothing.

How would a _human_ , a simple man, a teenager even, from a little place in Japan, control the weather and do all those other things? They couldn't, absolutely not.

So logically, Shirou would have to be something else than human.

This conclusion did not come out of nowhere. Taiga had seen an American film a few years ago, one about an alien baby that was send to Earth, because its original planet had been destroyed. That baby grew up with extraordinary powers, and eventually became a superhero with those powers. The story had always stuck with her, because it had been quite inspiring, and also fairly entertaining.

On the other hand, Taiga also had to think back on the scariest book she had ever read, about a monster, a demon, coming down from a higher dimension to prey on children with its immense and strange powers, using them to show his prey their worst fears, before mercilessly consuming them.

Both of those creatures had strange and amazing powers, which they kept a secret, just like Shirou. So perhaps, Shirou could actually be like them?

That made sense. That truly made sense. That would explain what she had just seen.

Taiga grinned as she sat up straight, her earlier shock and worry forgotten, now that she had solved the riddle. Shirou was just an alien.

'…'

' _Shirou is an alien!'_

Taiga's grin disappeared in an instant when it truly sunk in that she had an extra-terrestrial being living right in her city, one she had basically adopted as her little brother, while she had never noticed anything until today.

He behaved so very normally though, just like a teen of his age was supposed to. Okay, he had some weird quirks, but that was to be expected after his trauma. There was nothing to indicate he was some sort of higher being that had descended to Earth from wherever else in the universe.

He cooked, he cleaned, he worked hard at school. He was at most six-or-so months away from getting himself an Earthen girlfriend or two.

' _Does he perhaps not know he is an alien?'_ Taiga wondered, trying to remember anything about Shirou that would have suggested he was keeping such an incredible secret from her.

The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. He had probably landed on Earth, right in Fuyuki-City, during or perhaps a little before the Great Fire. In there, he had lost his memories of his alien world because of the trauma, if there had been any memories to begin with, before he had been saved and adopted by Kiritsugu.

It also explained why he had been completely unharmed when he had been taken out of the fire. His strange alien physiology had protected him from something as mundane as high temperatures.

No wonder Shirou was getting those powers. He was growing up, becoming an adult alien, his abilities were finally manifesting itself now that he was strong and mature enough to handle them.

She would have to work hard at guiding him towards the right path then.

Of course, she knew that Shirou would never use his power for evil or even just slightly selfish purposes, but it was best to be absolutely certain when it came to aliens and their powers.

Taiga gave herself a metaphorical pat on the back for her quick understanding of the situation. She really was more intelligent than people gave her credit for, having been able to keep her cool after hearing her ward had killed someone, and even reach the correct conclusion about his strange abilities within minutes.

Just after she finished her deduction though, and while she was in the middle of her back patting, Shirou and Sakura finally walked into the room. Judging by the new clothes they wore, they had changed before coming here, that explained why they had taken so long to arrive.

Where they had gotten Sakura's new clothes from, a white blouse and black leggings, both looking slightly too big for her, she didn't know, but it was hardly important right now. She wouldn't pry too much into it after already overhearing such… sensitive information.

She did feel guilty for eavesdropping like she did, truly, even if her shock largely overshadowed it, so the least she could do was pretend she didn't know those clothes didn't belong to Sakura.

The plum-haired girl was the first of the two to enter to room, and thus the first to see her.

"Fujimura-Sensei?" She asked in surprise, causing Shirou to immediately come up next to her. "You are already here?"

"Yup." Taiga grinned, leaning forward with her elbows on the table and her head in her hands. "I came a little early today. Imagine my surprise though, when I suddenly found _that_ guy, just lying here on the couch."

She jabbed her thumb at a still fast asleep Shinji, a slight smile on her face.

"Nii-san?" Sakura called out upon spotting him, making to approach him, before she was stopped by Shirou's hand falling on her shoulder.

"Let him sleep. If he's still not awake by now, he really needs it." Shirou told her softly, before turning to address Taiga herself. "Good morning Fuji-nee. I suppose I owe you an explanation about this?"

' _I'm pretty sure I already know what's going on.'_ Taiga sighed inside her mind, though she was willing to play along for now. She didn't care for Zouken, and she didn't really care what kind of being Shirou was either, as long as he remained his selfless, wonderful self.

"I can take a guess, but perhaps you can fill me in on the details." She said, smiling sadly at Sakura, trying to show her she understood and sympathised. Sakura gave a small smile back, though Taiga could tell it was very strained.

"…Grandfather w-was- he was really mad, l-last night." The girl began softly, almost wilting in on herself, as if expecting someone to strike at her for her words. "H-He even attacked N-Nii-san, and t-then t-tried t-to attack m-me as w-well. W-We r-ran a-away t-then, and w-w-we c-came here, t-to Senpai, who l-let us s-stay at h-his h-house."

Taiga nodded to herself, idly noticing how Shirou softly squeezed the girl's shoulder. That would explain the bruises Shinji had on his body. Zouken had to have been even more unhinged than she thought if he had done all that to his own grandson.

She didn't fault them at all for running away, they were completely right in doing so. Staying when your abuser turned violent like that was very harmful, and could encourage them to go even further.

If your friend doesn't kill said abuser first of course.

Bless Shirou to for taking them into his home immediately. Not that she had ever doubted he would of course, but still.

Shirou had probably killed Zouken sometime after that, when he had been certain the siblings were out of the way.

She _really_ had to do something with that though, now that she thought about it. Again, she had no issue with Zouken being dead, but killing a human being was very difficult, especially for someone like Shirou. It could give some serious mental issues down the line.

She wouldn't pressure him into talking to her about it, but she hoped he would trust her with the truth, one day. Preferably soon.

Until then, she would just have to be her peppy self, and remind him at every opportunity that she was there for him when he needed a listening ear.

And of course, he also had Sakura, Issei and Ayako, so he was hardly alone.

"He did?!" Taiga hissed in response to Sakura's earlier statement, not having to fake her anger at all. "That old man has definitely gone too far this time. You have to get out of there, permanently."

Sakura looked up in shock at her words. "B-But w-where would we g-go? We d-don't have a-anywhere else to s-stay-"

"You can live here." Taiga immediately proclaimed while rising to her feet dramatically, making both teens gasp in surprise, as if that hadn't been their plan all along.

"Really, Fuji-nee?" Shirou asked, clearly confused by her quick acceptance. "Just like that?"

"Yup." The exuberant woman confirmed with a smile. "I'm sure gramps would be fine with it, and the authorities can be convinced easily enough, especially if we tell them what kind of man Zouken is."

"Thank you, Fujimura-Sensei. Thank you so much." Sakura proclaimed in delight, the emotion clearly completely genuine, her smile so bright that it was blinding, the gratitude obvious in her eyes. "I won't make any trouble for you, I swear."

"It is no problem at all, we'll all be glad to have you." Taiga laughed. "Besides, I don't think you can make trouble for me even if you wanted to."

Shirou and Sakura professed their gratefulness a few more times, before they set about making breakfast together, Sakura's smile never leaving her face the entire time, to both Shirou's and Taiga's delight.

It was about half-an-hour later that the teens finished preparing breakfast and they could dig in. Shinji was still asleep, so they let him lie there, putting aside some food for when he woke up.

"So, what are you two going to do today?" Taiga asked, slurping her noodles. She would have to attend a family-meeting herself, so the two were on their own.

"Oh, nothing much." Shirou said dismissively. "We still have to get Sakura and Shinji some stuff that is needed for living. You know, clothes, toothbrushes, books, the likes."

There was a heavy implication in that sentence that they would go and buy those things at the stores and shops, but Taiga suspected they would just get it from the Matou-estate. Zouken certainly couldn't stop them anymore.

She sighed. She really was reacting way too mildly for the situation. Her poor, precious Shirou had killed someone last night, actually killed someone, and here she was, eating breakfast as if she didn't have a care in the world.

Only, she didn't know what else she could do. Mentioning that she knew of his actions would only complicate matters and drive him away from her, or he would make her forget it altogether with his 'hypnosis'.

The best thing she could do now was make it clear to him that he could count on her. She had to be there for him, so that he might open up to her one day. Forcing the issue would be counter-productive, that was said in every book about parenting she had ever read.

It didn't seem like it bothered him all that much either, so psychological aid seemed unneeded for now. It could be considered a little scary that he killed someone and didn't seem to be feeling bad about it.

Really, his behaviour from a few weeks ago, when he had been very down and sad for about a month, was far more fitting for someone who had just killed anoth-

Ooooooh. Oh. Oh dear.

Zouken wasn't the first person Shirou had killed.

What the hell was she supposed to do with _that_ information? As if things weren't complicated enough yet.

Taiga gave Shirou a heavy glare, the teen, who had been talking with Sakura about the stuff they would have to get, visibly shuddered under it, looking unsure why he was being glared at.

Well, never mind. She'd stick to her original plan. Just let him come to her eventually out of his own will and trust that he knew what he was doing. She'd step in if it went completely wrong of course, but…

Gah, this whole parenting-thing was difficult. Why weren't situations like this ever covered in those books she read? Now she had to figure it all out for herself...

"Fuji-nee?"

Upon hearing her name being said in such a concerned tone, Taiga wrenched herself from her thoughts, looking around until her eyes settled on Shirou.

"Yes?"

"Are you alright? You have barely eaten anything, and you look pale." Shirou said, concern clear in his eyes and voice. "Have you come down with something? I can make some tea for you, and you are free to use the guestroom to lie down for a while."

"Eh? Oh no, there's no need for you to bother yourself over that…"

"Fuji-nee, of course there is a need for me to bother myself over that. If you aren't feeling well, then I-"

"We _."_ Sakura interrupted him gently.

"-Then we will have to take care of you. That what we do for each other, isn't it?"

…

Right, why was she even worried?

He would be fine, the idiot, even if he was an alien and had apparently killed multiple people already over the past months.

She would have to stop fretting about this so much. She had better things to do than worry about something she had no control over.

Arranging for the adoption of Sakura and Shinji by her gramps for instance. That shouldn't be too difficult. He would be more than happy to help them get away from the shadow of that monster of a grandfather of theirs.

Granted, Taiga would have to do the lion share of the work in getting the paperwork done, but that was alright.

Nothing was more important than their happiness. Kami-sama knew they deserved it.

* * *

Sakura was living in a dream.

There was no other way she could describe it. She was living in a dream and she hoped she'd never wake up again.

It was everything she could have ever wanted. Her grandfather was gone, Nii-san and she were finally free, and she was going to move in with her Senpai, who didn't think she was defiled and didn't hate her, even though he knew everything that she wanted to keep a secret from him before.

Her Senpai was the one who had saved her too, like in her many fantasies. He had stormed into the basement and had obliterated Zouken and the worms, both inside and outside of her body, before gently carrying her away to his home.

Granted, in her fantasies, he had never been in a Berserker-rage, she wouldn't have been unconscious throughout most of it, and it wouldn't have been followed with a conversation full of tears and self-hatred, but Sakura couldn't deny that him becoming so angry for her sake made her feel a little giddy. Or very giddy actually.

She placed a hand on her breast, feeling her heartbeat, from the place where there was no longer a worm present. All of them were gone, including the one that had always scared her the most, the one that had born the most of her grandfather's essence in it.

He had alluded more than once that removing it meant a certain death for her, but that had turned out to be untrue. Her grandfather was dead and gone, and she was still alive and healthy, _without worms_.

She had forgotten how it felt to not have those parasites inside of her after so long, to not be weighed down by their presence. Her mind felt so incredibly clear, and her body felt so light.

She could activate her Circuits again without feeling like her entire body was being chewed on and being cut to pieces from the inside out, though she had limited herself to merely letting a bit of Od flow through them. No way she was going to try a spell after so many years of inaction. She had never been taught a single thing about Magecraft in the Matou-household and using Prana without teachings was foolhardy at best and suicidal at worst.

What was at least as good, if not better, than her renewed ability to use Magecraft however, was the completely absence of the filthy, tainted lust that had constantly assailed her ever since she had been thrown into the pit for the first time.

She had been awake for hours now, and not once had she felt lusty or desiring of improper things. Granted, she had felt some desire, but nothing that was as heavy and all-encompassing as the feelings that the worms had forced upon her.

She was as attracted to Shirou as she had always been, but she could finally feel a proper, healthy, not downright lecherous appreciation of his form, instead of having to watch her every thought to prevent the worms from picking up on her lust and then empowering it to the point where she would constantly imagine him taking her.

All in all, she was feeling as light as a feather, as if she could handle everything and take on the entire world by herself.

Which was a good thing too, as they were currently headed towards the very place that had spawned just about all of her nightmares for the past decade, the house that she had always associated with pain, misery and hatred.

The Matou-estate.

Shirou had been very clear in his intentions. They were here to take everything that might be of use to them in the future, and then they would burn down all the rest, including the house itself. Once they were done with that, they would blame Zouken, who had never been right in the head to begin with, for the fire. The 'poor, deluded old man'.

With a bit of luck, everyone would believe them. Zouken was thought of as a crazy person by anyone who knew him anyway, so it shouldn't be too difficult to convince the police that he had committed suicide by fire.

Nii-san had not come along for the plundering though, as he was still sleeping on the couch. Sakura had been worried about him , but Shirou had assured her it was quite normal for her brother to sleep this long after what had happened.

He had been out on the streets almost every night for the past few years after all, fretting and worrying without end, and that had probably drained him to the point where he would have collapsed very soon, with or without Shirou's interference.

Sleeping for more than twelve hours didn't seem so strange when that was taken into consideration.

Shirou had made him drink some water though, to make sure he stayed hydrated, but that was everything they could do for him. They would wake him in the evening though, if he still hadn't risen by then.

They were currently walking over the street, on their way to her old house. It was around three o'clock currently, most of their day having been spend on talking about the near future, as well as about Shirou's actions as a vigilante. The summery he had given her that morning had been way too short after all, and Sakura had been itching for more stories.

It had been his idea to leave for the Matou-estate at a time where the fewest people would be around, making the chance of anyone seeing them enter the place before it burned down as small as possible.

It was… nice, to walk with her Senpai, now without any of the stress she would normally be suffering under in his presence.

That was not to say that everyone was suddenly alright however.

She might not carry the worms inside of her anymore, but that didn't take away the many years that she had carried them around. They had taken their toll on her, defiled her, and Nii-san hadn't helped, even if it had been against his will. The causes might be gone, but the effects were still there.

She was still a spoiled woman, one who had been used for a long time for… unclean purposes. It was obvious Senpai deserved better, someone cleaner and more virtuous than her. There was no doubt that anyone could see that…

She violently shook her head, pushing away the feelings of inadequacy. Senpai had said he didn't think of her as defiled, and he didn't lie about things like that. He clearly didn't care about her impurity.

It just made everything look a lot brighter for her to have him in her corner, to the point where, even though she knew she was being far too presumptuous, she began to consider doing something scandalous.

She shyly glanced at Shirou, looking at his face first, and then at his hand, not really believing she was actually contemplating this.

Slowly, she reached out, astounded on the inside that she could be so bold, and slowly, carefully, placed her hand in his, entangling their fingers a bit.

Shirou gave her a curious look, but he didn't reject her advances, instead tightening his own grip slightly, softly holding on to her hand.

Sakura was now holding hands with him, while they were walking over the street together, like an actual couple.

She _never_ wanted to wake up again.

"We are here."

Sakura was regrettably torn from her bliss by her Senpai's warning, noticing they were standing in front of the gate of the Matou-estate. A gate that she would hopefully enter for the last time today.

"Are-, are you alright, Sakura?" Shirou asked carefully, a concerned look in his eyes as he let go of her hand. "We can do this another time if you want."

"No. Let's do this today." She shook her head, before giving him a smile. "I want to get this over with as soon as possible, and then I never want to see this place again."

Shirou looked her in the eyes for a few moments, before he nodded and pushed the gate open.

"I didn't lock it last night." He explained after Sakura gave him a surprised look. "I didn't have the key and I was in a hurry to get out."

The plum-haired girl nodded at the explanation as she entered the estate, idly noticing the damage he had already done the night before. The garden and the front door were pretty much reduced to ash, and the inside of the house had been smashed up pretty badly.

"Do you know what we can expect here?" Her Senpai asked, looking around carefully, having insisted that he took the lead, being the toughest and most Magic-Resistant out of the two of them.

"The cruellest curses and spells that grandfather could think of, probably." Sakura said with a sigh. "He is- he _was_ like that. I don't know anything specific though, I was never taught anything by him."

"Then we'll just have to be extremely careful." Shirou nodded, stopping just before the front door and sending a pulse of some kind of Magic inside.

"Just a little trick with the mysterious power that I picked up, similar to scanning." He explained when he saw her questioning look. "It's very obvious and visible to everyone inside, but it works really well when you want to find defensive measures and don't care about being noticed."

"That sounds really useful." Sakura smiled, happy to learn more of what he could do. "Did you find anything?"

"It would seem I was very thorough yesterday in destroying the defences, as there's nothing left except for a few half-broken curses here and there." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "I wish I could remember doing so though, it's all a blur now."

They continued their walk, very cautiously, ready to bolt should anything go wrong. Or, at least, Sakura would bolt, while Shirou would take on whatever it was that threatened them.

Their caution turned out to be unneeded however, and soon, they were standing in front of Sakura's room.

Shirou quickly took some large bags from the Vault, which he handed over to Sakura so that she could get everything she wanted together.

Which wasn't a lot. Sakura never had many possessions to begin with, so there wasn't all that much she could retrieve. Mostly clothes, and a few gifts from her brother and her friends.

She actually had to think for a long time whether she would take the few things she had left from her time as a Tohsaka with her, or if she would let them burn with the house. Eventually, she put them in one of the bags, though she wasn't entirely sure why.

All in all, it didn't take longer than fifteen minutes to grab her stuff, and it took an equal amount of time to get her brother's possessions together as well. It then all went into Shirou's Vault, which Sakura still considered to be amazing.

When that was over with, they started their plundering for real.

Sakura could not deny it made her feel a bit giddy to start upending everything in the house. She broke open closets, turned drawers upside-down, had Shirou kick in a few doors for her, she tore the artwork to pieces, and she threw the piles of research on the ground, before blatantly stepping on it when she walked away.

Grandfather would have hated it of course, which was a big part of what made it so enjoyable. She was destroying the physical representations of her rotten childhood together with the one she loved, resulting in two of the best hours of her life.

"So, I believe we got just about everything." Her Senpai said with a small smile, putting the last of the jars they had found in his pocket dimension.

They had found a lot of interesting things in the many rooms and hidden spaces in the house, ranging from quite a lot of ordinary money and jewellery lying around, to a few papers on Worm-Craft and a considerable number of jars filled with an unidentifiable fluid in which strange, organic-looking objects were floating.

Shirou burned everything that involved worms of any kind, but the rest of the research he kept, even the strangest things that neither of them could actually understand, to look at again in the future. They could be of use after all, especially since he would be visiting the Clocktower soon.

Of course, the morally questionable stuff would be destroyed. Everything that involved hurting the innocent or for which innocents had been hurt in order to obtain the knowledge. Shirou had no intention of handing such knowledge over to yet another immoral bastard hellbent on becoming a nigh-God, merely because of some vague promise of knowledge and because that's what their ancestors did.

"It looks like there's nothing left." Sakura agreed with him, walking out of the secret room they had been standing in, the last one they had been able to find.

Now all they had to do was start the fire, get out of the house before anyone would notice, and make up a convincing story about a crazy old man that had burned himself alive after his grandchildren couldn't take his abuse anymore and ran away.

"I'll start the fire then." Shirou said, glancing at her with a sympathetic expression. "Is there anything you still want to do or say here? Last chance now."

Sakura pondered for a moment, before she shook her head. "I have nothing to say, Senpai. It's enough to know that this place is destroyed, so I can finally move on."

"Then be ready to run." He said, before he drew a Rune in the air. "This is going to turn into an inferno soon, so let's get out of here."

And so they did. As soon as the Rune took effect, they sprinted out of the house.

Not wanting to be seen anywhere near the upcoming conflagration, they made their way back to the Emiya-estate immediately, not slowing down until they encountered other people again, some hundred meters further along the road.

Shirou and Sakura nodded to those people, trying to look inconspicuous as the Matou-estate went up in flames behind them.

Sakura looked back at the immense cloud of smoke that was slowly rising into the air, deftly ignoring the shocked cries from the people around her as she kept walking.

Shirou placed his hand on her shoulder in support, but though the gesture was nice, it was unneeded. She wasn't looking back out of nostalgia or because she was thinking back on happy memories that were now lost.

She was only looking back because she regretted not being able to stay and watch as the fire consumed her most hated place in the world. It would have been such a beautiful sight, and she would have loved to snuggle up to her Senpai while basking in the warmth.

A missed opportunity, but she would get over it. It would just have been the icing on the cake anyway, as today was already the best day ever.

She was finally out of there.

And of course, she made sure to take Shirou's hand again as they walked back home.

* * *

Shirou was sitting across from Shinji, who was still lying on the couch, asleep, though he was no longer unmoving. He had started stirring around an hour ago, and Shirou expected him to wake up any moment now.

He had asked Sakura to stay away from the upcoming conversation, or confrontation rather, to which she had agreed. He wanted to talk to his old friend himself, and Sakura had already told him she wasn't feeling up to facing her brother anyway.

Shinji would probably prefer it too to not have her be present.

So while he sat here, Sakura was preparing one of the unused bedrooms for herself, to move in permanently. He would go and help her as soon as he could, but they both agreed that this had priority.

She did however ask him to be nice to her brother, to go easy on him, as nothing that had happened was his fault. Zouken had terrorised and forced him just as much as he did her.

Shirou had agreed. He shared her suspicions, and he didn't have all that much anger left anyway. He needed every bit he had for Zouken and Tokiomi.

It only took a few more minutes for Shinji to wake up, well within the expected margin.

The blue-haired teen seemed very groggy at first, rising to a sitting position while grasping his head in his hands, his eyes remaining closed as he groaned in… pain? Exhaustion? Dizziness and disorientation?

After rubbing his eyes though, Shinji finally looked around. He blinked several times then, no doubt realising he was not in familiar surroundings, before he turned his head to look straight at Shirou.

For a few moments, neither teen said anything, both just staring at each other, one in shock and curiosity, the other in silent determination.

As he stared though, Shirou could see that Shinji's memories of the previous night were slowly returning, the confusion in his eyes disappearing bit by bit, until finally it dawned on him just what was going on.

"Emiya." He said neutrally, before falling silent, casting his gaze down to the ground.

"Hello, Shinji." Shirou responded calmly. "You probably have quite a lot of questions, but let me answer a few of them right now, so that we can go on to the more important matters."

Shirou raised a hand and began ticking off on his fingers. "I killed Zouken. You are currently in my house after our conversation last night. Sakura is here as well, preparing one of the bedrooms for her own use, as she's going to move in permanently. She knows I am a Magus, as well as various other facts about me. We just got back from the Matou-estate, where we plundered everything that could be of use before we set the place on fire. Any questions?"

Shinji stilled, processing Shirou's quick summation of events, until he huffed and gave a chuckle.

"Had a busy day, huh?"

"Quite busy. I can't complain about the results though."

"I bet you can't."

Both then fell silent again, as Shirou averted his eyes as well. Neither said anything for a while.

"…So, you're a Magus?" Shinji eventually spoke up again. "Can't say I saw that coming."

"Well, it's not like I behaved like one. Dad never taught me about how a proper Magus was supposed to behave, he only ranted a bit about how annoying and downright monstrous they could be."

"Your father?"

"Emiya Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer."

Now that caused Shinji's head to shoot up, his expression contorting in surprise as he looked at Shirou.

"That guy? No wonder then that you could kill Zouken so easily."

"It wasn't exactly easy, but we are digressing. I have to apologise for being so late with getting you out of there…"

That got him another huff and a dismissive handwave from Shinji.

"…But I must ask you this. I know what you did to Sakura, Shinji, you told me last night that you raped her. I understand now that it was necessary for her to stay alive, but… did Zouken force you to… to do _that_ to her? Was it him who made you do it, or…?"

Shinji averted his eyes again, looking to the wall beside him as he gritted his jaw. "And what if he didn't, Emiya? What are going to do if raping her was a conscious choice I made, because she replaced me as the heir of the Matou-family?"

"I would be very mad if that was the case." Shirou admitted easily enough. "But Sakura already asked me to go easy on you…"

"Of course she did." Shinji interrupted him with a sneer. "Foolish girl. She could stand to become a little harder…."

"Shinji, stop that." Shirou snapped. "Her kindness to you, even though there is a chance you willingly hurt her, is a sign of her strength, not of weakness."

In a world where it was so easy to condemn, hurt, and hate others, was it not strong to forgive? Was it not a sign of greatness to ask for mercy for those who hurt you?

Sinking to _their_ level was never something to applaud or encourage, rather something to regret.

Shinji looked ready to protest, but he deflated before he could get a word out, a thoughtful look appearing on his face, as he nodded once, his mouth twisting as if he tasted something unpleasant.

"Anyway." Shirou continued, putting that little spat behind them. "I am not going to kill or hurt you, Shinji, but I would like an answer to my previous question. Did Zouken force you?"

"Choke on it." Shinji said shortly, turning away from Shirou yet again. His hands were shaking, and from what Shirou could see, Shinji was horribly conflicted at the moment.

No matter how much Shirou tried after that, Shinji would not say another word, choosing to remain silent, perhaps out of pride, perhaps out of regret, perhaps even because he himself didn't know. No amount of talking from the redhead got as much as a peep out of him.

Eventually, Shirou had to acknowledge he wasn't getting anywhere with this, so he changed the subject.

"We took your stuff from the Matou-estate as well. It's over in the guestroom, all of it, or at least, everything we could find in your room."

"I see." Shinji said, turning back the moment Shirou let the previous matter drop. "Thank you then."

"As I said, we burned the house down, so you can't live there anymore, but I have a room for you if you want…"

Shirou tapered off as Shinji shook his head, making it very clear what he thought of the redhead's offer.

"Now that Zouken is dead, I am not staying here." He said, an oddly light note in his voice. "I have been wanting to get out for years, and I am not letting this chance pass me by. I don't think I should continue to hang around Sakura any longer, not until she has had a chance to recover."

"…Get out of… where, exactly?" Shirou asked carefully, letting the matter of Sakura lie for now.

"Fuyuki-City." Shinji sighed, confirming Shirou's suspicions. "No offense to you Emiya, or to Sakura or Mitsuzuri or anyone else, but this place holds nothing but bad memories to me. I have to get out of here, I'll go crazy if I don't."

"I see." Shirou said, pursing his lips as Shinji stated his intent. "Where will you go though?"

That was the most important question. If Shinji truly wanted to leave the city, Shirou wouldn't stop him, but he couldn't in good faith let the boy live on the streets, without a penny to his name or a place to sleep.

"Don't know." Shinji shrugged, looking way too unconcerned for such an important topic. "I'll get by. I'm also not saying I'll stay away forever. Just as long as I need to get my head screwed on straight again."

Shirou could admire Shinji's ability to acknowledge that his childhood had likely traumatised him in some way, but he couldn't possibly agree to him just up and leaving within even as much as a plan or destination in mind.

"At least pack a suitcase before you go." The redhead ordered his friend. "I'll enchant one to hold far more than it should while weighing nothing at all, that shouldn't be that difficult, so you can take everything you need. As I said before, your stuff is over in the guestroom and, oh yeah, take this."

Without hesitation, Shirou stood up and grabbed one of the debit carts to one of Kiritsugu's burner accounts, before pushing it into Shinji's hands.

"Here, take this cart, it holds somewhere around five million yen." Que the jawdrop. "I'll add another five million as soon as possible, and another five next month, and so on. Take the money from the Matou-estate as well, and I think that-"

"Emiya!" Shirou stopped dead when Shinji suddenly interrupted him. A glance at the blue-haired teen told him he might have been a bit too fast with his explanation.

Standing with his eyes and mouth wide open, debit card in hand, Shinji looked ready to just up and leave. In the end though, he just sighed deeply and sat down again.

"What. The. Fuck?"

Right, perhaps a bit more explaining was required.

"If you want to leave, I won't stop you." Shirou said, starting from the beginning again. "But I can't let you leave without a plan or resources of any kind. As such, I'll give you all of your stuff, which we took from the Matou-estate, as well as all the money we found there and that debit card, which holds five million yen. I'll add five million each month from now on as well."

Shinji gave a terse nod at that, glancing shortly at the card in his hand, before motioning to Shirou to continue.

"I'll also enchant a suitcase to hold everything, so that you can actually take it all with you without breaking your back from the weight. That is everything I will be able to do for you though, unless you are willing to let me keep an eye on you-"

"No." Shinji interrupted him once again. "Don't follow me, Emiya, and don't let Sakura either. In fact, have no one follow me if you can help it at all. Not you, not Sakura, not the police or anyone else."

Shirou frowned at him, taking a deep breath, before he nodded.

He had given thought to convincing Shinji to stay of course, but he didn't think he could, no matter what he said. The blue-haired had decided on a course of action, and it was highly unlikely that he would let anyone change his mind.

Keeping him here by force wouldn't do anything either. It was both against Shirou's morals to do so, and it plain wouldn't work. He couldn't keep Shinji a prisoner forever, unless he was willing to keep him tied up and locked in room all the time, which he wasn't.

So the best thing he could do here was make sure the boy was as prepared as possible for the journey he was about to embark on.

And if he didn't want company, then Shirou wouldn't force it on him.

"Do you want to see Sakura before you go?" He tried, hoping that Shinji would agree to that much at least.

"No." That hope was shot down immediately.

Shinji regarded him for a few more moments, before he sighed and sat back.

"I'll be leaving in an hour, Emiya."

"That should be enough." Shirou sighed in response.

With the conversation finished, Shirou left the living room, on his way to create and then pack a magical suitcase.

Fortunately, he had a few suitcases lying around, a leftover from his dad's prime years, when he had travelled the entire world on a daily basis.

Enchanting one to hold far more than it should without the added weight was not something he had done before, but again, Mjolnir bailed him out, a sense of exasperated fondness emitting from the hammer as it presented a Runic Array to him.

This Runic array would make the suitcase far bigger on the inside than should be possible, while also taking away a lot of the weight. It would also prevent anyone from stealing the thing from the owner, in this case Shinji, and it would make it always return to said owner, no matter what happened to it.

It really was cheating to get all that from Mjolnir, while others would have had to work for years to even get a shadow of what he got in a second, but Shirou didn't really care for that at the moment. He only had an hour after all.

The enchanting, which was basically Shirou painting the Runic Array on the inside of the suitcase with his own blood, after which he added some of the mysterious power, took a few minutes.

His body then also reminded him again that it was still extremely sore and spend.

The few bits of power he had used to set the Matou-estate aflame had already taken their toll on his recovering body, but this, being a far more complicated enchantment that also required more power, had a far larger impact on him.

He could actually feel the burns from where he had channelled too much power the day before, and he could feel the gaping emptiness left after he squeezed the last drops out for this Enchantment.

It would probably be wise for him to take it very easy the coming days, to let his body and his reserves recover.

Anyway, the suitcase was done in a matter of minutes, so he could start packing.

On his way to the guestroom to grab Shinji's stuff, he encountered Sakura, who was just coming out of her new room.

"Senpai." She called out upon seeing him, a hopeful smile on her face. "How was Nii-san? Did you talk with him? Why are you carrying a suitcase?"

"Hey, Sakura. Yes, I did talk with him." Shirou answered, the smile on Sakura's face making place for a confused look after hearing the pensive tone in his voice. "He wants to leave the city, so I'm packing a suitcase for him."

"Leave?" Sakura asked with wide eyes. "B-But where will he go? C-Can't you stop him, Senpai?"

"He doesn't know where he will go, he just wants to get away from here." Shirou sighed, eliciting a shocked gasp from Sakura. "Which is why I'm packing his stuff, so he can take it with him. I'm also throwing in some of the money I got from lord El-Melloi and all money from the Matou-Estate. If that's okay with you of course."

"It's alright, you can give him everything." Sakura immediately professed. "Can I talk to him though? Maybe I can convince him to stay?"

"He… doesn't want to talk to you." Shirou admitted, giving Sakura a one-armed hug when she looked down in sadness at his words. "Hey now, you don't have to feel bad. I think he just feels guilty for what he did."

"He shouldn't have to." Sakura whispered, leaning into his side. "I know that it was Zouken who forced him, every single time. He might not act like it, but I know it is true."

Shirou nodded. He might have had some doubts himself, but Sakura would know best, wouldn't she? Besides, he would like to think that he wasn't _that_ bad at picking his friends.

Granted, it was more that Shinji had picked him, but still.

"I'll help you pack then." Sakura continued, dislodging from his embrace. "We can't have Nii-san leave without everything he will need out there."

Shirou smiled and nodded, before they went to get everything together.

Eventually, it didn't take them longer than forty minutes to pack everything Shinji might need, ranging from toothbrushes and toothpaste to clothes and extra shoes.

The money as well of course, which, at Sakura's advice, they spread out over multiple purses and bags. The jewels were haphazardly thrown in, as well as all the cheques, precious stones, and other valuable stuff from the Matou-estate.

It was honestly fun, if one forgot why they were doing this. Sakura actually giggled a few times, and Shirou caught himself smiling every time she did so.

Granted, it was probably just a way of coping with Shinji leaving, but still, doing things together with Sakura was always fun.

"…Please tell Nii-san I'll miss him." Sakura then suddenly said as he closed the suitcase. "And that I don't blame him for anything."

"I will."

When he eventually got back to the living room with the suitcase fully packed, he was relieved to see Shinji still sitting there. He had feared that his friend might have taken the chance to run while he was busy packing.

"Shinji." He called out, attracting his friend's attention. "Thank you for waiting."

"Hm, you took your time." Shinji huffed as he took the suitcase Shirou held out for him. "Thanks."

Both teens walked to the gate together, neither speaking a word until Shinji had stepped out of the estate. Then he turned around again.

"So, this is it." He said, again having a strangely light tone in his voice. "I guess this is goodbye, Emiya. Thanks for the suitcase and for not killing me on the spot, I guess."

"You're welcome." Shirou said, a frown marring his face. "Can I convince you though to send a message every now and then? It would greatly relieve us to know you were still alive and kicking out there."

The implication that 'us' meant Sakura and him was left hanging in the air.

"I'll see about that." The blue-haired teen said dismissively. "Tell her I said goodbye."

"I'll pass your message on." Shirou nodded. "And she asked me to tell you that she will miss you."

Shinji gave a terse nod, before he turned away again, continuing his walk along the street. Before he could get out of earshot however, Shirou called out one last time.

"She doesn't blame you, for anything."

Shinji stopped again, for just a moment, though he did not look back.

"I know."

And he continued walking, his suitcase at his side, until he had disappeared from Shirou's sight.

Their paths had diverged, for now at least.

* * *

When she heard her mother knock on the door for what felt like the fiftieth time today, Ayako didn't bother with pleasantries and immediately threw her pillow at the door in return.

"Come on, Ayako, my sweet, sweet daughter." Her mother sighed overdramatically. "I know you are worried, but you can't stay in your room the entire day. Wouldn't visiting Shirou be much better than just moping your afternoon away?"

"I'm not moping." Ayako grumbled, feeling a blush come up at being so easily seen through, as she tried to bury her head in her pillow, only to realise she had just thrown it at the door.

With another wordless grumble, she got up to grab it.

While standing in front of her door however, she could hear her mother's dejected sigh, the sound far sadder and more 'moe' than an adult woman should be capable of.

Ayako gave a sigh herself. She could see that she was being a bit of a bitch to her mom, who didn't deserve that treatment in the slightest. Shaking her head, she opened the door, facing her mother, who looked surprised at her sudden appearance.

"Hey mom, sorry for today." She mumbled. "I guess I'm just worried, but I know that doesn't excuse it. I shouldn't take out my problems on you."

Her mother smiled softly as she drew her in for a hug. "It is no problem, dear. I took no offense. I know you are worried sick about Sakura-chan."

"She just won't talk anymore, with anyone." Ayako said, hugging her mother back. "There has to be something wrong, and I'm willing to bet it's her grandfather's fault. I don't know why he would do this though. This was all so sudden."

"…In all honesty, this wasn't entirely unexpected." Her mother admitted, making Ayako freeze up. "Every time I met her, I could see signs of possible abuse on her. I never acted on them, because I wasn't sure, but it seems the signs didn't lie after all."

"So there _is_ something wrong in that family." Ayako hissed, taking a step back from the hug. She had known already that things weren't exactly stellar in the Matou-household, but actual abuse? "We have to do something, now."

"Indeed. Child abuse is not something we can condone."

Mother and daughter looked to the side as a new voice joined the conversation, seeing Ayako's father step up to them, a large frown on his face.

"Ryozo, I understand that you don't like doing nothing, but we won't achieve anything by storming in without a plan either. We can't do it now…"

"Then when, Chiaki? When are we going to do something? When that old man finally snaps and actually harms Sakura? When Sakura can't take it anymore and tries to harm herself? You know just as well as I that it won't stop until we act."

Ayako watched as her parents argued, on one hand glad that they were willing to get so involved in this, on the other a bit worried that they would do something stupid and make it all worse.

She agreed with her father on this one however. They had to get Sakura out. They didn't have to do anything to Zouken himself yet, but Sakura, and Shinji as well, had to get away from him.

Now outnumbered, her mother caved easily enough, agreeing to take action, as long as they kept in within the boundaries of the law.

"I suppose they can stay here, or with Shirou-kun." The woman mused. "Whatever they prefer, though I suspect Sakura-chan at least will choose Shirou to stay with. They have been getting closer over the past months. You'll really have to start working now if you still want to beat her to it, dear."

Her father scoffed, while her mother giggled again. Ayako herself only gave some half-hearted chuckles however, her mother's words reminding her of another problem she had.

She had still not answered Sakura's question. It had literally been months since the plum-haired girl had proposed to share Shirou between them as _their_ boyfriend, without the two of them having to fight over it, and she still hadn't answered, not to accept and not to refuse either.

There were entire weeks she didn't even think of it, while she kept Sakura waiting the entire time.

Okay, Sakura probably didn't think of it most of the time either, but it was still very callous of her to let the matter lie for so long.

Was that a factor in Sakura's sudden refusal to talk to them? Did she feel insulted or humiliated by Ayako's ignoring of the matter? That hardly seemed like Sakura, but then again, Ayako had apparently missed signs of abuse on her already, so perhaps she had missed more than that.

Ooooh, she really had to talk things over with her, and fast.

"In fact." Her father said as Ayako tuned in again to their conversation. "I think we should go there right now and take Shinji-kun and Sakura-chan away from there."

"N-Now?" The brunette stuttered in response, caught off guard by the sudden haste, before falling silent, as she considered the merits of acting fast.

There was… actually no reason to delay, was there? It wasn't as if they didn't have a proper cause now to take the siblings away. There were plenty of people who could declare in the court of law that Zouken was absolutely not fit to live together with others.

"Alright." She said, already half-way down the hall before her parents had even noticed she was moving. "Let's go."

"Ah, w-wait." "Ayako-chan?"

Not paying heed to her parents tripping over themselves behind her, Ayako put on her shoes and resolutely walked outside.

She was about two streets further when her parents caught up to her again, both looking very out of breath. They clearly needed to exercise more if they were tired from running such a short distance.

"Okay, okay. No more delays." Her mother puffed. "Zouken's an old man, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get past him if he gets violent. Okay, deep breaths, we are justified in doing this, deep breaths."

Ayako spared a moment to feel amused about her parents referring to the old man as 'Zouken' all the time, never as Matou-san or anything else. In fact, no one ever seemed to refer to him as Matou-san. Not even Issei did that, and he was as polite and rule-abiding as they came.

Her amusement fell away in an instant however when she spotted a cloud of smoke hanging above a part of the city.

It clearly wasn't a raincloud, and Ayako had seen enough pictures and clips of large fires to know exactly what was producing the smoke.

Ayako felt a bit curious about what could be burning, and she hoped it wouldn't spiral out of control, but her stomach dropped when she realised the cloud was coming from the general area of the Matou-estate.

Her breath quickened as her hands got clammy. She picked up her pace immediately, leaving her parents behind again, who were still gaping at the smoke, both experiencing slight flashbacks to the Great Fire.

As she ran towards her destination, the pit in her stomach only became wider and wider as the origin of the smoke remained on her path, remained exactly on the exact place where she didn't want it to originate from.

She prayed under her breath that she was wrong, that the origin was somewhere else and not at all where she feared it to be, but the closer she got, the more confirmation she received that it was indeed coming from the Matou-estate.

When she reached the line of firemen and police officers blocking the way towards the conflagration, Ayako's last hope fell away, a sob escaping her as she looked on.

Her friend's house had turned into an inferno, the flames hungrily consuming the entire estate, the heat so intense Ayako could feel it even from a street length away.

But the familiar purple hair was nowhere to be seen, and neither were any ambulances or other signs of medical aid.

"It's a shame." She suddenly heard a woman say from somewhere within the crowd. "I've been here since the fire started, but no one has come out. The firemen think the inhabitants are still inside, the poor dears."

"…no… NO!" Ayako cried, violently pushing herself through the crowd of bystanders, cursing them all in her mind for standing in her way. "No no no no. SAKURA!"

She broke through the crowd with liberal use of her elbows, knees and fists, but before she could go further, her way was barred by two police-officers.

"Miss, you cannot go further, it is too dangerous there."

"BUT SAKURA IS STILL IN THERE!" Ayako screamed back, trying to pass them, only for them to hold her back, grabbing her by the shoulders. "LET ME GO!"

"Ma'am, please." One of the officers shouted, while she struggled against their hold like a woman possessed. "The fire is too hot, and the building is close to collapsing. You can't get any closer or you _will_ be harmed by it…"

"I DON'T CARE, SAKURA IS STILL IN THERE!"

"Miss, please. You can't go there. You'll only get hurt. There is nothing you can do right now…"

"LET ME GO! LET ME GO LET ME GO LET ME GO!"

"Miss, _please._ "

"NO!"

"Men, let me handle this."

The voice wasn't loud, but it cut straight through the noise surrounding them, carrying an air of authority. The policemen backed off, and just as Ayako was about to run forward again, she was slapped in the face.

It wasn't particularly hard, but the surprise was enough to cut through the haze surrounding her mind, returning some clarity to her.

A strong hand then landed on her shoulder, easily holding her back, though admittedly she didn't struggle as hard as before anymore.

The brunette noticed now that tears were streaming over her cheeks, worry and despair running rampant through her mind.

If Sakura was in there, as that woman had said, there was no way she could survive.

But that would mean she was dead, that she was gone forever…

It would mean there would be no more breaks spend together, no more dinners at either Ayako's or Shirou's house, no more shared activities filled with peaceful talking and messing around.

It would be a world without Sakura…

No, no, no, she had to get inside. It didn't matter if she would get a few burns, she had to get Sakura out before it was too late. Why did no one understand that? She had to help her friend!

The tears started coming full force again, and Ayako tried resuming her desperate run towards the house, only for someone to place himself in her way.

The man wasn't overly large, but he had a massive presence around him that made everyone in his vicinity, including Ayako, stop all the same. His eyes were hard, but also understanding, as he calmly held Ayako back.

"Miss." He began, sounding tired and regretful. "Please, don't. You won't achieve anything at all by going into the flames. You would only make your parents grieve your injuries, or worse, your death. Please stay here, where it is safe."

Her parents…

"Ayako!"

She was promptly hugged from behind by arms she recognised as her mother's. A glance at the man in front of her, who had a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes, told her that he had seen the woman coming and had purposefully stalled Ayako until she arrived.

Ayako could appreciate the cunning he had displayed, but that was the only thing she could appreciate here.

"Mom, let me go, Sakura is still in there, and Shinji probably as well." She begged, only for her mother to tighten the embrace.

"No, sweetling, you can't go there. You would die." She protested.

"That doesn't matter, I have to help them."

"You would die in the fire." The voice of her father cut in, the man suddenly standing behind his wife. "Do you think Sakura and Shinji would have wanted that?"

Ayako froze at the words.

…

No. They wouldn't have wanted Ayako to die for a lost cause, they would have wanted her to live on, both of them would have bodily thrown her out of the house if it meant she could live.

And a lost cause it was. The heat and the flames were so intense that she couldn't even look at the house without hurting her eyes, and that was from a street length away. There was no way she could get close…

…And there was no way anyone could survive in there.

The strength in her legs disappeared as she sank to the ground, slipping from her mother's strengthless arms, the truth of the situation setting in.

…They were gone.

Sakura was _gone_.

Ayako buried her face in her hands as she started crying, uncontrollable sobs wracking her body. Chiaki immediately kneeled next to her, hugging her tightly in an attempt at comforting her, while Ryozo went to speak with the officer.

"What happened here?" He hissed, not in the mood for pleasantries.

"We don't know exactly, sir." The officer responded calmly, looking at Ayako with pity and empathy in his eyes. "All we know is from a few witness-statements. According to them, everything seemed fine one moment, before the entire house became an inferno by the next. We heavily suspect it was arson."

"Did- did anyone get out?" Ryozo asked hoarsely.

"No one got out as far as we know."

Ryozo gritted his teeth as his daughter started crying even harder, a sound that no father ever wanted to hear.

"Am I correct in assuming you know the inhabitants of this place however?" The detective went on, before bowing slightly. "I am detective Osaki Koyo. I won't be in charge of the investigation, or even involved in it all that much, but I can pass on any information you cann provide to the officers in charge so that you can leave early."

Ryozo shortly introduced his family in turn, before giving the detective a quick description of the members of the Matou-family, as detailed as he could.

"I see." Osaki said when Ryozo was finished. "Do you have any idea who would set fire to their house?"

"No, I can't think of anyo-"

" _Zouken_."

Both men turned around as Ayako, done with only listening, cut through their conversation. She looked at the men with teary, bloodshot eyes, yet there was no denying the conviction she held in them. "Zouken would have done this. The man is an insane abuser who terrorised his grandchildren for years. W-We were going t-to get t-them out, b-b-b-but…"

Chiaki hugged her daughter again, rubbing her head and whispering comforting words in her ear as detective Osaki wrote everything down.

"Thank you." He said softly when he was done writing. "Your statements have helped a lot, I assure you. Can I ask you to come in for a more detailed statement later though?"

"We will." Ryozo assured the man in turn. "For now though, please let us take our daughter home."

"Of course." The detective agreed instantly. "My deepest condolences for your loss."

Ayako felt her mother pull her to her feet, softly dragging her along, away from the fire. Faintly however, the brunette could hear her father speak with the detective.

"Why are you here if not on duty, Osaki-san? If you don't mind me asking?"

"I live close by and I was out with my family. When the call about the arson came, I sent my girls home and came here. I expect I won't be on this case for long though. I already have my own investigation after all."

"I wish you the best of luck with it then. Thank you for helping us."

"It was no problem. I hope your daughter will recover soon for her loss."

That was the last she heard before her mother dragged her out of earshot, leaving Ayako with only her thoughts.

Sakura was gone.

It seemed impossible. How could that girl be gone? What higher power would go out of its way like that to take such a fantastic girl from the world?

Ayako felt as if her heart had been torn out, as if the strongest man in the world had punched her in the gut, yet she would prefer both of those options over the grief. How was she supposed to get through the day without her best friend…?

 _Shirou!_

Ayako stopped dead upon remembering her other friend, her other friend who was still blissfully unaware of their loss.

Her mother made a confused sound at her sudden stop, but Ayako didn't listen to it.

"I have to tell Shirou." She said, her voice sounding dead as she tried to hold back the hysteria. "I have to tell him before I can freak out. He has a right to know."

Robotically, she turned and started walking towards Shirou's house, hearing her mother follow her, though she did not try to stop Ayako.

During the walk, Ayako tried shutting off her mind as well as she could. She did not want to think or feel anything, not when that would hurt so much.

It was simply unimaginable, a world without Sakura. A world where the plum-haired girl didn't walk through the hallways, where she wouldn't happily tell her of her most recent dinner with Shirou.

A world where she would never smile again.

She reached Shirou's house, her feet having carried her there automatically. The building felt as warm and inviting as always, and Ayako hated having to bring such bad news into such a peaceful atmosphere.

The sun was just setting, so Shirou was probably still awake.

Yet when she tried stepping inside, she found she couldn't move a muscle.

Her entire body locked up, refusing to follow her commands. She simply couldn't make that first step.

How would Shirou react? He would be devastated of course, grieving like Ayako herself, but would he be angry too? Angry that Ayako had come too late.

If she had been a measly two hours earlier in her decision to pick Sakura and Shinji up from their house, they would have been alive. They would have been walking with her towards the Emiya-estate, but instead, there were gone, because she had been too slow.

Shirou would probably tell her it was not her fault, but…

A sudden small push in her back forced her to step inside, through the gate.

Ayako turned her head in surprise, to find her mother standing there, a sad smile on her face as she indicated to the front door.

"He needs to know." She said softly. "And it would be best if _you_ told him, instead of a random police officer."

Ayako took a deep shuddering breath, and nodded, wiping away the tears, though new ones instantly took their place.

She forced herself to walk, one step after another, to get inside and tell Shirou.

She was still reluctant of course. Telling her friend would make it real, would make Sakura's death a reality instead of the nightmare she was still hoping it to be.

But he had to know, so she forced herself to enter the house.

There were sounds coming from the dining room and the kitchen, so he was probably there, working at dinner, perhaps expecting Fujimura-sensei to join him. Instead, he would get her, and the horrible news she was bringing.

She started sobbing again as she tried to think of the correct words. How was she supposed to tell him this? What was she supposed to say? What would she do when he cried? Would he even cry?

With shaking hands, Ayako pushed open the door, stepping inside the dining room, her eyes closed as she tried to regain a bit of her composure, even though she was still sobbing.

She would have to be blunt. She didn't have the energy for anything more complicated. Shirou would understand, right?

She would have to tell him that Sakura was gone. That she would never visit again.

That they would never hear her voice again…

"Oh? Hello, Ayako. I didn't expect to see you here."

Ayako, for the second or third time that evening, froze on the spot, once again completely taken by surprise by yet another twist.

Slowly, she opened her eyes again, hoping against hope that she wasn't hearing voices but that her dear friend was actually here.

She was! Sakura was standing there, setting the table, wearing her apron and looking at Ayako with uncertain and curious eyes.

She was right there, very much _not_ dead.

"Ayako? Are you okay?" Sakura asked worriedly, putting down the plates to approach her. "You look as if you've been crying…"

She didn't get any further than that, as Ayako flung herself at the plum-haired girl at full speed.

Completely caught off guard, Sakura didn't have any time to react before she was embraced by the distraught brunette, who hugged her as tightly as she possibly could.

"Sakura!" She cried out, tears again streaming over her face, but this time, out of happiness. "You are alive."

"Eh? Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?"

"Y-You-Your h-house." Ayako wailed. "It's on fire, and I thought you were still inside."

She tightened her grip on the other girl even more as the possibility of never seeing the plum-haired girl again flashed through her mind once more. "Never scare me like that again. I thought you were dead."

"E-E-Eh? N-No, I'm not dead." Sakura immediately declared, hugging her back. "Senpai got Nii-san and me out of there this morning actually. We're fine, really."

Shinji was fine too? By this point, Ayako couldn't even talk anymore, she was so happy. She just sobbed and cried and generally made a mess of things, Sakura comfortingly rubbing her back in small circles until she calmed down a bit again.

Okay, Sakura was alive. Fantastic news. Now it was time to work out all issues they had, so that she could properly enjoy the presence of her very much alive friend.

"Sakura." She thus said, dislodging herself and grabbing the other girl at the shoulders. "Do you remember the first time you had dinner at my place? Shirou was there too, and my brother was being a bit of a jerk, do you remember that?"

"Of course." Sakura nodded, seemingly a little lost on the sudden subject change.

"You said that evening that I was free to pursue Shirou." Ayako continued, feeling a little embarrassed that she could recall the conversation word for word. "You said I had your blessing, and that you trusted that I wouldn't push you out of the picture."

"…Yes, I did say that." Sakura whispered, looking down in sadness. No doubt she was sad because she thought Ayako was going to refuse. Well, then she would be surprised.

Gathering all of her courage and steeling her nerves, Ayako took the leap of faith.

"I accept." She yelled, probably far louder than was necessary. "We will share Shirou as our boyfriend."

And then, before she could lose her carefully build-up courage, she leaned forward and kissed Sakura on the lips.

It was a chaste kiss, just pressing their lips together, but she hoped it was enough to convey the sentiment.

"Uh?" Sakura appeared completely thrown for a loop after Ayako pulled back, staring at her in shock.

"Yes. We will do this together, as you proposed back then." Ayako confirmed with a smile, feeling an enormous weight being lifted off her shoulders as she said that, finally getting it over with.

Some uncertainty gripped her however, when Sakura's expression remained shocked. "That was what you meant, right? T-That you wanted to share, and be… closer?"

Sakura stared for a few more moments, before she rapidly started nodding. "Yes, that is exactly what I meant. I-I'm happy you are willing to accept."

"Fantastic. I look forward to working with you." Ayako grinned, feeling immensely relieved she hadn't misunderstood the girl all those months ago. That would have been _so_ embarrassing.

Now, where was Shirou-?

"Sakura, what going on there?"

Shirou entered the kitchen, looking as if he just came out of the shower, his eyes falling on her almost immediately. "Oh, Ayako. I didn't expect to see you here."

"Ah, Shirou." Ayako said coldly, looking at the one who had failed to inform her that he had already taken the siblings away. "Just the one I wanted to see."

"Eh? Is something wrong, Ayako?"

"The Matou-estate is burning down." She explained, crossing her arms, glaring at the foolish redhead. "I thought Sakura and Shinji were still in there, and that they had- that they had… d-died. I thought they had burned alive in there."

"Oh." Shirou looked shocked and guilty as she explained. "I am so sorry; I should have informed you right after I took them from the Matou-estate."

"Yeah, you should have." Ayako hissed, quickly wiping away some fresh tears. She had been convinced she had lost Sakura in those flames, but all the while, they had been holed up at Shirou's place, and they hadn't even told her about it.

Then again, Shirou couldn't have anticipated that Zouken would torch his own place, so not all the blame fell on him. She was willing to admit that.

"Ayako." Shirou said, walking towards her, before bowing deeply. "I cannot express how sorry I am for making you worry like that. I should have remembered to tell you they were here right away, but it honestly slipped my mind. It won't happen again."

"I'll just assume it was an honest oversight then." She huffed, letting go of her anger. "As long as you tell me immediately if something like this happens again. Oh, and I'll be having dinner with you today."

"You are welcome to." Shirou smiled, rising from his bow as Sakura walked over to him. "We'll get started on it right away."

Ayako grinned back, though she had a nagging feeling she was forgetting something important…

"Sakura?!"

Oh right. Her mom had still been outside.

"You are alive." The woman cried in happiness, rushing through the dining room to scoop the girl up in a hug. "Oh, I'm so relieved. We thought you were dead. Ayako was so devastated, she was just crying and sobbing and…"

" _Mom!_ " Ayako hissed as she tried to pry her mother off Sakura. "There is no reason to talk about that. Sakura and Shinji are both alive, so let's forget about the past hour, please."

She continued her attempt at dislodging the plum-haired girl from her mother's embrace, but froze yet again when Sakura suddenly reached out and touched her cheek, the smile on her face absolutely dazzling.

"I am glad you care about me so much." She said, the warmth in her voice probably enough to melt the entire South Pole.

Was she blushing? She was blushing, was she? Ayako groaned in embarrassment as she tried to hide her face in her hands. Why did her mother have to tell them that? Could she get a better, more discrete one?

Ah well, at least Sakura was happy with this whole episode.

"We have to tell your father at once." Chiaki continued, before she set Sakura down, a serious expression on her face. "In fact, we have to tell a lot of people. Sakura and Shinji are now believed to be dead by the police. We have to rectify that as soon as possible."

"Right." Ayako agreed, looking around the dining room. "Where's Shinji anyway?"

"He left." Shirou answered, crossing his arms.

That got him two confused looks.

"Left?" Chiaki asked. "What do you mean he 'left'?"

"I mean that he left. He said that had enough of Fuyuki-City and left to find himself or something. I expect him back in a few months or so, when he has screwed his head on straight again."

"And you let him leave?" Chiaki asked incredulously.

"I couldn't have stopped him." Shirou sighed. "He was set on leaving, so he would have, sooner or later, with or without my permission. So I gave him some money and a packed suit case and told him to contact me if he ever needed any help."

"T-That… I-I…"

Ayako's mind raced as her mother stuttered. Shinji had left? Just like that he had strolled out of town?

It was better than being dead of course, but just letting him leave town for an uncertain future, that wasn't a Shirou-thing to do.

Except, it was. If Shinji really wanted to leave, then Shirou would not stop him. That was an undeniable fact.

Shirou would do what was best, and if leaving town was the best for Shinji, which she was willing to admit it might be, then he would let the blue-haired teen leave. After giving him plenty of supplies of course.

"Mom." She interrupted her still stuttering mother, who turned to her with a pleading expression, hoping for support that she would not receive. "If Shinji wants to leave, we should let him leave."

"B-But… That's dangerous." The woman protested. "As an adult, I cannot accept that a teenager is now wandering the streets all alone…"

"Mom." Ayako sighed. "What do you want to do about it then? I don't want to be rude, but finding him is going to be difficult, and keeping him here even more so. Wouldn't it be better to let Shinji do his own thing for now?"

Chiaki was very sceptical still, but she could see the teens weren't going to agree with her on this. All three could be remarkably stubborn when they were in the mood for it.

"…Fine, but I am going to tell your father about Sakura being here and also about Shinji being gone." She said, her tone making clear that this wasn't debatable as she pulled a phone out of her pocket.

Ayako nodded, she had nothing against that.

"Will you stay for dinner as well then?" Sakura asked curiously, to which the woman shook her head.

"No, my husband and I will eat at home with Minori. I take it you will stay though?"

The question was directed at Ayako, who nodded with a smile. These two owed her that much at least after the scare they gave her.

"This matter is far from over. I still want to know what happened exactly, as I have no clue at the moment and the police also needs to be informed, but for now, I'll let it be. Enjoy the meal and have a good night. I'll come back to pick you up tomorrow at nine o'clock. You can make your statements to the police then."

"We will, mom." Ayako said with Shirou and Sakura nodding besides her, before the sentence really registered in her mind. "Wait, good night? To me as well?"

"If you're going to eat here, you might as well stay the night." Her mother huffed. "Besides, I think I'll be good for you after the events of today. I'll talk with Fujimura-san about your visit to the police by the way, don't worry about that."

"Alright, thank you, Chiaki-san." Shirou said, not protesting at all to the notion that Ayako would stay the night. "We'll see you tomorrow."

The woman nodded, before giving all three a last hug as she walked out of the house, the last sound audible being the lock on the door clicking as she closed it behind her.

Sakura and Shirou both released an explosive sigh that moment, slightly startling Ayako in its intensity.

"Wow, she accepted that pretty easily." Shirou said, almost sagging in relief.

"I almost thought she would insist on chasing after Nii-san immediately, as well as going to the police right away." Sakura agreed. "I'm relieved she didn't."

"Mom isn't heartless." Ayako protested weakly. "She would not drag you around after such a stressful day."

"I suppose she wouldn't." Shirou said. "She seems like a very kind woman."

"Indeed. I wish I had a mother like that." Sakura sighed wistfully, before winking at Ayako, as if to say 'I'll get that mother before long'.

"Ugh, y-yes, she's great." Ayako admitted, not able to deny it, and feeling that denying it anyway would be extremely insensitive after Zouken's actions.

Her friends nodded, before they set off for the kitchen.

While cooking, the topic was carefully kept away from recent events, merely lingering on schoolwork, cool tv-shows and the shopping spree that was necessary to get Sakura all the new stuff she would need.

When the food was prepared however, and they all sat down at the table, with Fujimura-sensei missing because she had yet another family-meeting, Ayako could no longer hold back her curiosity.

"What happened?" She asked sharply.

Sakura and Shirou exchanged glances at her question, before the redhead spoke up.

"It's quite simple really. After our discussion about getting Sakura out of the Matou-estate and away from Zouken, I decided to just choose the easy way and remove them myself."

"And Zouken just let you?"

"Absolutely not." Shirou scoffed, as if the very notion was preposterous. Which it admittedly was. "I actually had to get physical with him to get all three of us out."

"Was it that bad?" Ayako asked, shocked that it would have escalated to such a level. She knew Zouken would be unpleasant, but to actually fight Shirou…

"Grandfather is- was, very possessive." Sakura said, a sad note in her voice. "For him, it was very important that he owned us. When Senpai came to take us away, he couldn't bear losing a part of… well, of his identity, basically."

"I didn't know." Ayako whispered, leaning over to hug Sakura again. "I'm so sorry for not noticing it for so long."

"I have known Sakura for far longer and I didn't see it either, Ayako." Shirou countered. "The blame lies with me far more than with you."

"I kept you out of it though, or at least, I tried my hardest to." Sakura interjected. "I am the one who avoided talking about it and pretended everything was alright and didn't want to talk to you for the past few days and…"

"Let's just blame Zouken and be done with this." Ayako hissed, shaking her head in disbelief. "You two, always so eager to take the blame when you shouldn't."

"Sorry, Ayako." Shirou said sheepishly, Sakura fidgeting beside him. "I suppose Zouken is indeed the guilty one."

"Still, I'm sorry for avoiding you for the past days." Sakura said with clear regret in her voice. "I know it doesn't excuse me, but grandfather said he would harm you if I didn't."

"That old bastard." Ayako hissed, slightly incredulous that the threat had even been made. What was he going to do? Fight them? That frail old man would have been lucky to cross the road in one piece.

"I see now that I shouldn't have let myself be influenced by him so much." Sakura assured her. "He is gone now though, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"Yeah." Ayako frowned. "He set his own house on fire with him in it. That man was beyond saving."

"Are you sure it wasn't an accident?" Shirou asked, leaning forward in interest.

"According to the firefighters, the witnesses declared the fire spread way too fast for it to be natural, so no. Zouken must have lit it himself."

"…I see."

Sakura then softly cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the other two present.

"Could we please discuss something else now?" She asked, looking increasingly uncomfortable with the subject.

""Of course."" Ayako and Shirou said simultaneously.

The rest of the evening was spent talking about innocent, soft topics and watching some romance dramas and anime, and Ayako again thanked every god still in the sky that Sakura was alive and well.

Eventually, they went to bed, with Shirou sleeping in his own room and Ayako sharing Sakura's new room with her.

"So, you are going to stay here from now on?" Ayako asked the plum-haired girl as she rolled out a futon for herself. "Does Fujimura-sensei know?"

"She does." Sakura answered happily, sitting on her own futon. "She is completely fine with me staying here. She said she'd try to get me as a ward of the Fujimura-family too."

"That is wonderful news." Ayako grinned. "I never had any doubt she would though."

"Uh huh." Sakura agreed, still with her smile on her face. "So, now that we are alone again, I wanted to ask; how exactly did you envision us dating Senpai together? And what does it mean for… well, for the two of us?"

…

Now that was a sudden change in topic. Ayako went slightly red at Sakura's bold question, stuttering for a moment before she recomposed herself. She had taken the first step here, so she shouldn't shy away from questions.

"E-Eh, w-well, you know, do normal relationship stuff together, only now with the three of us. Go on dates, kiss, eat together, t-things like that. It really shouldn't be that difficult if we're all fine with it." The brunette said, gaining confidence as she spoke. "I think actually getting through to him will be far more difficult than the three-way relationship itself."

"You are probably right." Sakura pouted cutely. "Senpai really doesn't see it, does he? I guess we'll just have to try extra hard at being noticed."

Ayako nodded in agreement, already trying to think of something they could use to make it clear to Shirou that they liked him. She was drawing a blank though, the few options that she could think of either being too over the top or not assertive enough for the blockhead.

"…We could also ask for advice." She eventually suggested softly, wringing her hands a bit, feeling a blush come up as she laid down her idea. "I think my mother would be willing to help us with this."

"That would be the smart thing to do." Sakura readily agreed. "An adult will probably have a calmer, more objective look on things."

"Have you ever met my mom?" Ayako huffed, though she could not deny her mother would in fact be a big help. She always was when Ayako needed her.

"I have, that's why I know that asking her for her advice is a good idea." Sakura said cheekily. "I guess that was everything I wanted to talk about though. Shall we go to bed now?"

"Let's." Ayako agreed. "We've got a lot to do tomorrow, like visiting the police station, and notifying everyone about your survival, and maybe we can catch a glimpse of that fool of a brother of yours too, before he disappears."

"…Are you worried about Nii-san, Ayako?"

"…A bit, yes. I don't doubt he left of his own volition, and he can probably get by himself, but I am still concerned about him being out there, in his state of mind, without any help."

"I am concerned too." Sakura admitted in a whisper. "I really hope he'll be fine."

"He probably will be." Ayako assured her, trying to sound as confident as she could. "Just you wait, he'll be back before you know it, and better than ever."

That got another smile out of the girl, once more making Ayako's heart skip a beat.

"Good night, Ayako."

"Good night, Sakura." Ayako whispered, laying down on her futon, fully expecting Sakura to do the same after turning off the lights.

Instead however, she heard a few grunts from Sakura's direction, as well as the sound of something being pushed across the floor, causing her to turn to her side to see what was going on.

Sakura was pushing her futon towards Ayako's, eventually laying them right next to each other, giving the brunette a perfectly innocent smile as she did so.

Ayako was still staring at the joined futons when Sakura turned off the lights. She lifted her head just in time to see Sakura lie down again next to her, and she was too surprised to prevent the girl from putting an arm around her.

Sakura then snuggled up to her, quickly drawing the blanket over them and falling asleep before Ayako could say anything.

Ayako blushed fiercely, her entire head feeling incredibly hot. Sakura's actions were so incredibly bold, yet, she couldn't summon the will to do something about it. It was… too comfortable.

' _I wouldn't mind falling asleep like this every day.'_

Great, the treacherous part of her mind was back.

Not willing to wake Sakura up, and not entirely willing to put some distance between them either, Ayako just sighed deeply, before relaxing.

It didn't take very long for her to fall asleep as well.

* * *

 **And done, the aftermath.**

 **A hell of a lot happened here, and more will happen next chapter. I guess that's what happens when you reach such a milestone in your story.**

 **Very heavy on the exposition, but also a very short recap on what Shirou's been doing. I hope it was a bit interesting at least.**

 **Next chapter is a bit more plot-progression, but also not overly much. It's just that a lot needs to be cleared up now, and it means more telling.**

 **The Clocktower is approaching, but our main characters first have to finish the schoolyear before Shirou can get enough time off. What will happen in those few months that are left? Who knows…?**

 **Also, I have to admit that it wasn't so much Shirou who forgot about the environment-cleaning Runic Array, rather that it was me, which is pretty stupid, considering it has actual plot relevance.**

 **Taiga now thinks Shirou is an alien. Can anyone guess which two fictional characters she was referring too when she reached that conclusion?**

 **Shinji is gone for now. He is on a life-changing journey and believe me, it will be** _ **life-changing**_ **(!) for him. We'll see him again later.**

 **Ayako has now accepted Sakura's proposal, and they are free to work towards finally getting Shirou as their boyfriend. Will they succeed? Probably.**

 **Also, both Sakura and Ayako are canonically bi, with Sakura having her eyes on Rider and Ayako having her eyes on Rin. I am not pulling that out of thin air.**

 **Discord: discord . gg / YaZvJJj**

 **As always, my thanks to my beta-readers** **Crazylich79** **,** **liamrodhudson331** **and** **Woggie**

* * *

 **Omake:**

CrazyLich79 was still planning on killing Ted, that had not changed over the past few chapters. To become an author, one had to make sacrifices after all, and if that included the life of an old friend, then so be it.

For now however, he was content to study for his upcoming language exam, while grinding FGO and drinking coffee that was at least 99% sugar.

Ted had just arrived at a bothersome, dragging part of his story, right after some big action, so Lich wasn't planning on taking over just yet. he had enough on his mind with how long he spent staring at each sentence in the chapter, trying to think of possible ways how anything he wrote down could come back to bite him in the future when he took over the story.

He had been watching several important places around town however, especially Grail-kun's home, in order to anticipate possible nasty surprises. During one of these… 'ahem', voyeurism sessions he had seen something unacceptable, something that had almost made him want to revive himself and pluck his eyes out in hopes of unseeing it, something that had to be rectified as soon as possible.

Fakers, copy-cats, those without creativity to do something unique. All of them had demanded knives of Grail-kun to do… something, he didn't know what, but he did know he didn't like it one bit.

Couldn't they have brought their own weapons? Were they too poor to get a fruit knife? Maybe they were greedy and didn't want to use their own stuff? Oh, or maybe they had a curse that killed them when using the creative part of their brain? What was it called agan? Hippocampus? Something like that.

Well, no matter, the Lich knew what he had to do.

He wiped his mouth with a tissue, picked up his trusty new knife from the table, and rose, passing some money to a waitress.

"These young'uns need a lesson in originality, heck, I will throw 'em a discount and only charge them their lives for a 1-on-1 session with Yours Truly. Time for some action, I needed a break from studying anyway."

His knife gleamed, and Crazylich79 marched away in fury.

* * *

 **Thanks to** **Crazylich79** **for the omake**

 **Ted disappears now.**


	20. Administrative Business

**Administrative business**

Osaki Koyo was in a rather foul mood.

He had tried his very best to hide it from his daughters, his partner, and his colleagues, not wanting to bother or worry them, but he suspected he had fooled no one. He had been in a foul mood often enough during the past few months for everyone to know the signs by now.

This time however, the cause for his bad mood was, surprisingly, not Rakurai. Osaki had long since made his peace with the elusive vigilante, having realised that getting upset about not catching him was nothing but a waste of energy. Rakurai was innocent today.

No, the reason of his current bad mood was a problem that had plagued him since the beginning of his career, one that had soured his mood already far before Rakurai was even a thought in anyone's minds.

He had once more seen yesterday what cruelties mankind could be capable of, and just as it had many previous times, it both disgusted and greatly saddened him.

He hadn't planned on becoming a part of the force that was supposed to keep civilians away from a burning house, nor had he planned on stopping a distraught teenage girl from committing suicide in a vain effort to save her friend from the inferno.

Seeing the girl break down in front of him had wrenched his heart something fierce, even after his many years of service. Even if she hadn't reminded him of his own girls, he still would have pitied her greatly.

To lose a friend to such a gruesome death was always terrible, especially for one so young. The girl would probably carry the scars for the rest of her life.

All because some punk had decided to set fire to a residence, all because a criminal had suddenly decided to kill people for reasons Osaki couldn't even begin to guess at.

He couldn't even imagine how it must have been for the people trapped inside the house. He had burned himself many times while cooking, and knew very well just how painful even tiny first-degree burns could be.

He actually felt queasy when he tried to imagine how it must feel to be burned alive, how insanely torturous that had to be.

What a callous and cruel world this was, for people to be capable of such cruelties, and even revel in it perhaps.

He wasn't on the investigation, but he would gladly help the officers assigned to the case wherever possible. That kind of evil couldn't be permitted to exist, the perpetrator had to be caught before he did something similar again.

Which was why he was currently sitting on a chair on the second floor of the precinct, just dumbly staring at the wall in front of him, waiting to be called into the nearby office.

His own workspace was on the third floor, and he would be getting up there later to continue his hunt for the vigilante, but for now, he had to give a witness statement about the arson committed on the Matou-estate, as well as his role in the events following it.

Shimada Kyuwa, an old friend of his, was the one overseeing the investigation. He was a good man, intelligent and driven, one of the few that Osaki would trust with his life in the Fuyuki-City Law Enforcement.

He was confident that Kyuwa would work on this investigation with everything he had, either until he caught the perpetrator or until the trail went cold.

It would not bring back those who had been murdered yesterday, but perhaps it would allow them to rest easier if the perpetrator was caught and sentenced.

The second thing that annoyed him however could not be handled like that. It was far more complicated, and it greatly worried him. After all, it concerned his faithful partner, Yomaura Taya.

She hadn't been present the entire day yesterday, and would not be today either. She was far too sick for that, so she had stayed home.

Osaki feared it was far worse than a simple illness though.

He sat back in his chair with a deep sigh, thinking back on that fateful evening where he had discovered his partner's problems ran far deeper than he had ever anticipated.

* * *

 _After having finished up at the wreckage that used to be the Matou-estate, Osaki went back home, his thoughts with those poor people who had just lost their friends, especially that brown-haired girl._

 _She had walked away still in tears, with the intention of telling her other friends about what had happened. Osaki wished her the very best, fully aware of how heavy a burden such a thing was. He himself hated it when he had to have such talks with people._

 _With his tasks done though, he was free to leave again. Instead of going home right away however, he took the time to try and call Taya again. She hadn't been at the office today, and neither had she called or responded to any of his own calls or messages. Everything stayed silent._

 _Now again, the phone went over several times, but he only got the voicemail, just like before._

 _At this point, he was starting to get concerned, having heard nothing at all from her the entire day, and after a moment decided he had enough time to visit her home, to see whether something was perhaps wrong._

 _He went home and, after telling the girls he would be out for a while, grabbed his car to drive to Taya's place. He had felt incredibly tempted to break speed limits, the worry in his gut intensifying with each second, but he managed to hold himself back, if just barely._

 _There was something wrong, he could feel it in his bones now._

 _When he arrived at the apartment complex where she lived, he sprinted up the stairs at full speed, using the key he had gotten from Taya to get past the closed doors._

 _Fumbling slightly with the key, he managed to get the front door of Taya's apartment open, after which he ran inside, looking around frantically to find her._

 _He had been in her apartment several times before, so the bedroom was easily found._

 _To his immense relief, she was there, fast asleep, her chest rising and falling evenly._

 _That relief turned into shock and horror however when he noticed the sloppy bandages on her fingers and wrists, still bloody, some reaching all the way up to her forearms, clearly not replaced even once after they had been applied on the wound._

 _Worse, he could see bloody needles, knives, and… stones even, in the closet. The door hadn't been entirely closed, allowing him to see the macabre contents poorly hidden behind it._

 _Had Taya tried to…? No, no, certainly she wouldn't have…? There had been nothing to indicate that she would…_

 _No…_

 _A groan interrupted his horrified thoughts, and his gaze went back to his partner's face, which was, on closer observation, very red, and damp from sweat._

 _A quick check proved that she had a bad fever, much higher than was in any way acceptable. She had to cool off, or this might actually harm her even more. A fever could at times be even deadlier than the disease it was supposed to fight after all._

 _Osaki immediately went to get water from the small kitchen, slowly poured half of it over her head and then made her drink the rest, which she fortunately did easily enough, despite her unconsciousness._

 _Some fumbling led to him finding ice in the fridge too, which he immediately applied to her forehead. It barely helped. The fever was just too high._

 _Eventually, he replaced her bandages, hoping it would help somehow, but if it did, the effect wasn't noticeable._

 _After several hours, litres of water and buckets of ice though, he managed to get her temperature back to acceptable levels. Not long after, she finally woke up, greatly relieving a still-nervous Osaki._

" _Hnng." She groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, casting a bleary and surprised look at the drenched sheets covering her, before she started, eyes widening in shock, as she saw him standing next to her bed. "Senpai? Wha-What's going on? What are you doing here?"_

" _You weren't at the office today." He answered, seeing how her eyes became even wider. "It's- Well, it's about nine in the evening Yomaura, and you haven't been answering your messages all day. I was worried."_

 _He took a deep breath. "I didn't expect to find you like this though, and I certainly didn't expect…"_

 _He didn't say it out loud, but he did make a motion with his hands towards the bandages on her lower arms._

 _She didn't seem to understand his insinuation for a few moments, but realisation followed quickly, causing her to avert her eyes in… shame? Pain?_

" _S-Senpai, I can explain." She murmured, clearly searching for an excuse to placate him with. "I-I…"_

" _You don't have to explain yourself." He interrupted her mid-sentence. "If you don't want to tell me anything, you don't have to. I won't pry into your personal issues, no matter how much I want to, but I have to insist that you come to my place for tonight, for the week if possible."_

 _No way he was going to let her remain alone at her apartment after… that._

 _Taya looked aghast at the demand, but an imploring glare from him made her cave in easily enough. Getting her out of bed however was not so easy._

 _Her legs were shaky, and she clearly had almost no strength in her muscles. A fairly normal symptom of a fever, which nonetheless clearly annoyed her to no end. Osaki was happy to assist her though, lifting her up in a bridal carry and taking her to his car._

 _He had honestly expected her to protest against being carried like that, but strangely, she didn't seem to mind all that much, though she did press her face against his shoulder._

 _Once in the car, he drove her to his home immediately, and then put her to bed at once._

 _Almost at once. His girls, worried and caring as always, made her eat something before she fell asleep, if only to make sure she had some sustenance. They then tucked her in until they were certain enough that she was as comfortable as could be._

 _Osaki sighed, wondering what could have happened with his partner, as he prepared himself for the night as well._

 _He had noticed she had been a bit more down lately, but certainly that wouldn't have resulted in…_

 _He shook his head. It was of no use to wonder about that right now. He couldn't jump to conclusions. He would have to wait until his partner confided in him._

 _Until then, he would support her to the best of his ability._

* * *

The next day, Yomaura had still been far too sick and tired to go to work, so she had stayed in bed, with the girls staying home as well to take care of her. It hadn't been entirely voluntary on her part, but he and his daughters had accepted no arguments.

He really would have to give Chiho and Suki something nice for all the effort they put into helping Yomaura and him. They really were good girls.

Still, he couldn't help but worry greatly for her. If all the drama and horror of her life had accumulated to a point where she actually…

Osaki sat there for a while, his mood dark, and thoughts with the deceased and ill. A few minutes later, he was joined in the hallway by the Mitsuzuri-family.

They too had to give their witness statements after all, and to save time, they would all do so together.

Strangely enough, there were now five people walking towards him. Three of them he recognised from the day before, but the other two, a boy with red hair and golden eyes, and a girl with purple hair and equally purple eyes, were new to him.

The next thing he noticed about them was the happy atmosphere around the group as a whole. The girl, Ayako, if he remembered correctly, was beaming brightly at the other teens, while her parents were softly smiling down at her.

Never let it be said that Osaki was an idiot. If the death of the girl's friends no longer seemed to be an issue, while two unknown people had suddenly appeared, it wasn't all that hard to come to a conclusion.

Osaki's mood cleared up as soon as that conclusion was reached, the metaphorical dark cloud above him disappearing, as a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

Mitsuzuri Ayako was the first one to see him, giving him a surprised look, before she alerted the others to his presence. Her parents seemed to recognise him as well, but the other two didn't. That was okay though, he didn't recognise them either.

"Good morning, Osaki-san." Mitsuzuri Ryozo said with a nod, a slight smile on his face. "We have good news."

"They're alive!" The man's daughter squealed, throwing her arms around the purple-haired girl and the redhead as if to further illustrate their 'aliveness'. "They're alive. Can you believe that? It's amazing!"

After being prodded by her mother though, the girl then looked to the floor in sudden embarrassment. "And I'm sorry for causing so much trouble yesterday. I made your work harder than it had to be, please forgive me."

"There is no need to apologise." Osaki instantly dismissed her apology, as the girl had hardly been any trouble. He had dealt with far more annoying people in past after all. The girl's heart was in the right place, and that was what counted. "It delights me to hear your friends are in good health. I suppose they are the ones you are embracing right now?"

"Ah, y-you are half-correct." The purple-haired girl mumbled, shyly looking away from him. "I am Matou Sakura, but my brother is not here right now."

Osaki frowned slightly, casting a glance at the boy currently present. Who was he then if not Matou Shinji?

"Emiya Shirou, here for emotional support." The redhead introduced himself with a small bow. "A pleasure to meet you. I am afraid though that Shinji has left town, in order to find some peace of mind."

"Left town?" Osaki asked in shock. "What do you mean he left town?"

"They mean just that." Mitsuzuri Chiaki huffed. "The brat apparently left as soon as Shirou took him and his sister away from the Matou-estate, not even waiting for the police or anything."

"…There is a lot I want to ask you about that, but let us wait for the officer in charge of the investigation." Osaki said after having recomposed himself from the bomb dropped on him. He then turned towards both Matou and Emiya. "My name is Osaki Koyo; it is a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is ours, Osaki-san." Sakura smiled back, as everyone present missed how Shirou's eyes momentarily widened at the name, before he quickly straightened his expression. "Thank you for trying so hard to help even though you weren't on duty yesterday."

Osaki was about to reply, when they were suddenly interrupted by an opening door, the officer in charge of the investigation poking his head through the opening right after.

"Osaki-san." Kyuwa smiled at the detective, before nodding at the others. "And the Mitsuzuri-family. Thank you for your patience, please come in to give your statements."

Quickly shelving the rest of the conversation for later, everyone entered the office, each taking a place on the chairs that were standing around for these kind of occasions. They weren't exactly comfortable, but they would do.

After the introductions were over with, and Kyuwa had expressed his happiness over the unexpected survival of the Matou-siblings, the 'interrogation' could start in earnest.

"Yesterday, around four o'clock in the afternoon, the Matou-estate burned down rather spectacularly, leaving nothing behind but ash and charred remains. It is heavily suspected, if not outright confirmed, that it was arson. The fire spread too quickly for it to be natural, and our investigations tentatively rule out gas leaks or similar causes." Kyuwa read from the report in front of him. "Is there anything you would like to add to that?"

"Ah, Senpai got me and my brother out that morning already." Matou spoke up shyly. "So I don't know what could have caused the fire…"

"Zouken caused that stupid fire. Please don't make excuses for him, Sakura, familial loyalty is not applicable in this situation." Mitsuzuri Ayako interrupted her, sounding absolutely certain of herself, as she gave the other girl a small hug. "That guy is- was crazy and everyone here should be aware of that. It would make the investigation a whole lot easier if they knew who did it after all."

"That's… a rather heavy accusation." Kyuwa noted carefully. "Is there any reason for you to make claims like that, and can you substantiate them?"

"I would like to say that I completely support my daughter in this." Mitsuzuri Chiaki declared before her daughter could reply. "I didn't speak with him very often, but I managed to force him out of his hole once or twice, and I can say the man was positively unhinged. I have no concrete proof it was him, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if he was the one to set fire to his own house. Ask anyone who knew him, they will all confirm it."

Ryozo and the redhead, Emiya, also gave their support to Ayako's words, and even Matou nodded after they were done talking, with an air of someone who had to face the facts.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind during the investigation." Kyuwa promised, writing down their statements and their description of Zouken and his mental state. "Now that we are on the subject however, why did you, Emiya-san, decide to take away the Matou-siblings from their house?"

"Because for as long as I have known them, Zouken has been abusing them." Emiya said, placing his hand on Matou's shoulder. "He terrorised, manipulated and gaslighted them, and recently even began threatening them with bodily harm. I decided to take them away from there as soon as I learned of it, which was much too late I might say."

"Then you were completely correct in getting them out of there." Kyuwa nodded, frowning heavily now. He turned towards Matou then, softening his voice as he spoke to her. "While I understand this can be difficult to talk about, can you confirm what Emiya-san said?"

Matou seemed to fidget for a few moments, breathing deeply as she gathered her courage. When she looked up to Kyuwa again though, it was with a steely gaze.

"…Yes, it is true." She whispered. "Even in my earliest memories, he was always telling me and Nii-san how worthless we were, that no one would ever want us, that we were lucky he was there to take care of us, because no one else would. A few days ago, he suddenly started threatening us as well."

"Threatening you?" Kyuwa asked sharply. "What did he say?"

"That he was mad that we were having fun when we were away from the house." Matou answered, a slightly bitter note in her voice. "He was angry that we made friends for ourselves. He told us that he would kill them if we didn't immediately break off the friendships we made."

Osaki gritted his teeth slightly, the image of his girls being in such a situation filling his veins with fire. While his experience as a detective had led to him seeing several similar cases, the thought of people that could actually, casually, do things like that to their very own family was sickening all the same.

Neither he nor Kyuwa even thought of commenting on how it was nigh impossible for a man as old as Zouken to physically harm strong-looking teenagers. Matou Zouken had clearly been abusing the Matou-siblings from a very young age, and had conditioned them to fear him, even if they could easily outmatch him both mentally and physically. That was the evil of child abusers.

"So I took them away from there as soon as Shinji told me what was going on in their household." Emiya said as Osaki tuned back into the conversation, Ayako meanwhile hugging the other girl again. "I couldn't accept to stand back and just watch Zouken continue doing this to my friends."

"Entirely understandable." Kyuwa nodded sharply. "What was the situation in the Matou-estate when you took them away from there?"

"Not good." Emiya said grimly, while Matou seemed to shrink in on herself even more. "Zouken was yelling and throwing things around. He tried to prevent Sakura and Shinji from leaving in just about any way possible. He even tried fighting me, though I was able to easily overpower him."

Kyuwa dutifully wrote that down as well, just like all the following statements from everyone in the room about Zouken's deteriorated mental state and his abuse of his grandchildren.

"Alright, thank you." Kyuwa eventually said, holding up his hand. "I think I have a pretty clear picture of what happened last night, and I understand that Zouken was… crazy, to put it mildly. I would like to hear Osaki-san's statement now, and then you can leave again."

"No." Chiaki said sharply as Osaki was about to speak, rising from her seat with determination in her eyes, ignoring the disapproving looks from the teenagers in the room. "There is still the matter of Sakura's brother."

Kyuwa stopped writing after she said that, and Osaki nodded slowly, remembering what was said outside of the office.

"Shinji apparently decided he no longer wanted to live here after everything that had happened." Chiaki continued unprompted, throwing a disapproving look at the teens present. "And these kids thought that it was acceptable to give him supplies, a suitcase, money and a pat on the back as he left. If possible, I would like him brought back here."

"He chose to leave the city of his own free will, to try to find himself after living with Zouken for so long, and he didn't want anyone following him or searching for him." Emiya countered, meeting her gaze and glaring until she looked away.

"T-That may be true, but I hardly think a boy of barely fourteen should be allowed to make such an impulsive decision, especially when he probably wasn't in the right state of mind. We can help him here."

"How? By locking him up in a cell? He will try to leave again, and all the 'help' in the world isn't going to stop him."

Osaki rose from his seat and stepped between the arguing woman and teen. It hadn't looked like they would become violent, but stepping in-between people often put them off balance enough for the third person to seize the initiative in the conversation.

"Alright, enough." He said sternly. "Let us not blow this out of proportion. We are all adolescents and adults here, not bickering children."

Both woman and teenager seemed thrown for a loop for a moment, before what he had said settled in their minds. Emiya then sighed deeply.

"…Right. I'm sorry, Mitsuzuri-san. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that."

"Ah, right back at you, Shirou-kun. I suppose your opinion is just as valid as mine, as is Shinji's."

"Well, excellent then." Kyuwa said with a smile as Osaki sat down again. "However, Emiya-san, while we understand you merely want to support your friend in his decisions, it is not our policy to let underage children travel Japan on their own. I'm afraid we'll have to file a missing person-report for him and have the police be on the lookout for him."

"That's fine." Emiya answered calmly, not looking at all upset or annoyed as Osaki had almost expected him to be. "You have your duty after all."

Unbeknownst to everyone, the level of static electricity, normally at standard levels, dropped back from the incredibly high levels they had been at, causing the hair of the woman present, that had started to rise slightly, to fall back down again. Simultaneously, the pressure on the electronic equipment in the building disappeared, allowed everything to continue like normal.

Shirou didn't know about those happenings, but he would have been greatly annoyed at the lacking control if he did.

"Right." Kyuwa nodded sharply. "Can we continue with Osaki-san's report now, or is there something else you want to add?"

The Mitsuzuri-family members, as well as Matou and Emiya, shook their heads, so Osaki told his part of the tale.

He gave a quick summation of last night's events: He had been walking with his daughters, whom he quickly sent home after seeing the cloud of smoke rise above the city, then made his way over to assist in any way he could, which was mainly keeping the curious bystanders away.

He had his altercation with the Mitsuzuris there and, after the fire had been extinguished at last, aided the firefighters in searching the house for clues that would point them to the origin of the fire, either arson or accident, though they had found nothing supporting either conclusion.

"So after I helped at the Matou-estate, I went home and went to sleep. Nothing else of note happened in that time."

"Excellent." Kyuwa nodded, putting all papers together in a map, before rising from his seat. "That was everything I wanted to talk about. Thank you for your cooperation."

"It was no trouble at all." Mitsuzuri Ryozo said with a nod, a statement echoed by the others in the room. "If there's nothing left to talk about here, I suppose we can all get back to our lives now."

Ryozo's suggestion was met with unanimous agreement, as everyone left Kyuwa's office.

Before Osaki could head off for the third floor however, Ryozo stepped up to him, stopping him in his path.

"Osaki-san, to continue our conversation from before, thank you again for your hard work yesterday." He said, his family nodding to his words. "Even though you were off duty and busy with your own investigation, you still took the time to help. We all appreciate this, very much."

"It really was no trouble at all." Osaki reassured them. "Working at Law-Enforcement is more than just filling your hours and filing reports, it is also about helping people where you can. I did nothing but my duty yesterday, and I would do it again, every day, if necessary. Now, I don't want to be rude, but I have my case to attend…"

"Please, don't let us keep you here any longer." Ryozo smiled, before his daughter spoke up again.

"What are you working on?"

Osaki… couldn't say he was very surprised at the sudden question, nor at who asked it, and after some internal debate, he decided to tell them, leaving out any details of course.

"I am currently working on the investigation into Rakurai, to track down the vigilante and arrest him."

That one sentence was enough to strike them all silent, as the adults gaped in shock and the girls gasped in surprise and… awe? Though the Matou's gaze held more interest than shock or awe.

There was barely any reaction from the redhead though, who just blinked once. That, combined with his calm demeanour earlier, painted a picture of a very composed person. Quite impressive for a kid his age.

Or creepy, jury was still out on that.

"Really?" Ayako asked once she got over her shock, her eyes sparkling. "You are one of the policemen going after the vigilante?"

"Yes, though judging from your reaction, you are a fan of his?"

"I am." She shamelessly confessed. "But that doesn't mean I don't support you. I hope you'll have a lot of success. That would make following the case a lot more interesting than if he continues unoppos-"

"Ayako." Emiya smiled thinly while covering the brunette's mouth with his hand. "Please don't be so open about using the Law-Enforcement's efforts as a source of amusement."

"Eh, my daughters do exactly the same every day." Osaki laughed, feeling relieved it wasn't just his girls that behaved like so. "They have even taken to calling me Rakurai's nemesis, though honestly, I doubt the guy even knows I exist."

"You sell yourself short, Osaki-san." The redhead protested, still keeping Mitsuzuri Ayako's mouth covered, though the girl didn't really seem to mind all that much. "I'm sure Rakurai knows to be very careful whenever you are near."

"Thanks, but I don't think he ever has to account for me." Osaki said with a dismissive wave. "That guy is seriously good."

"Okay everyone, don't bother the officer anymore." Mitsuzuri Chiaki then fell in, taking her daughter and Emiya by the shoulders and gently steering them away. "I'm sure he has a lot of work he still has to do."

"Don't remind me." Osaki grumbled, already dreading the pile of paperwork waiting for him.

"Goodbye, Osaki-san, thank you again for the help." Matou smiled, giving a little wave as they walked away, Emiya now releasing the brunette from his grasp, who merely huffed, before grabbing his hand, Matou taking the other.

Osaki chuckled at the sight as he made his way up the stairs to his office.

Once he reached it, the first thing he noticed was the very empty desk of his partner. It was so… abnormal, to see her missing from her usual place.

As if she had heard him, his phone started ringing, his house-number displayed on the screen.

He answered it right away. "This is Osaki Koyo speaking."

"Good morning, Senpai." Yomaura said softly, her sleepiness clear in her voice.

"A good morning to you as well, though I wonder, should you be on the phone right now?"

"It's alright, I have Suki and Chiho right here, watching over me. They said it was alright as long as I stayed in bed."

"Hm, well, alright then. Don't overstrain yourself though."

"I won't, I was just curious. You had that witness-stuff this morning, right? How did it go-o-o-o?"

Her sentence was interrupted by what he assumed to be a jaw-cracking yawn, yet her message had gotten across well enough.

"Pretty well actually." He answered her question. "It turns out the Matou-siblings left the house well before the fire, and thus aren't deceased. Only their grandfather is, but he turned out to be both abusive and probably also guilty of setting the house on fire himself."

"Really? That's amazing news, the first part I mean. I reckon that Mitsuzuri-girl is pretty happy with her friends surviving?"

"She was indeed, and so were her parents and her friend, one Emiya Shirou."

"… _Emiya_?"

Osaki felt a shiver up his spine as his partner repeated the boy's name, her voice suddenly holding a very dangerous edge to it, something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. It was a voice that demanded he explain further.

"Yes, Emiya. He's apparently a mutual friend of both Matou Sakura and Mitsuzuri Ayako. He's a pretty normal kid as far as I could see. Red hair, golden eyes, average height for his age, nothing out of the ordinary."

"I see." The edge largely disappeared from her voice, and Osaki breathed out in relief.

"…I can hear that you are still tired, but do you feel better than yesterday at least?" Osaki asked her in concern, dismissing the matter of Emiya. He hoped her fever hadn't come back at least.

"I do, Senpai." Yomaura replied, a smile audible in her voice. "I'm sorry about my state yesterday, and about worrying you so much. It was just something with my family."

Her family…

Was she insinuating her family had done all of that to her…?

"…Well, please watch over yourself in the future." Osaki admonished her, refraining from prying into her personal life. For now. "The girls were very concerned about you last evening. You were barely capable of moving around without collapsing, let alone speaking coherently."

"Y-Yes, t-they told me. As I said, it won't happen again, Senpai."

"Just watch over yourself." He repeated softly. "I know things are difficult for you now, but don't break yourself trying to keep up. You can always come to us for help, and remember, just because they are family doesn't mean they own you in any way."

"Y-Yes, I know. Thank you, Senpa-a-a-ai." Yomaura answered, again being interrupted by a large yawn, and then yet another one.

"If you are that tired, you should go back to sleep." Osaki huffed. "Just get your rest, and make sure you get better."

"Will do, Senpai. Much love from the girls by the way."

"Much love back, for all three of you. Take care, Taya."

He hung up the phone, now in a slightly better mood than before. He then put his phone in his pocket, before making his way over a colleague that had been beckoning for him to come over since he had set foot into the office.

In another part of town, Yomaura was staring silently at the phone, a warm feeling settling in her stomach after hearing her Senpai's last words.

Now was hardly the time to feel warm and fuzzy though, after she'd worried him like that. She had to think of something to explain what he had seen.

Her thoughts strayed however, to what she had just heard.

A Matou, in the presence of an _Emiya._

Coincidence…

Or not?

* * *

'Ding-dong.'

Rin cracked open one eye when she heard the doorbell ring, the annoying and very unwished-for sound echoing through her house way too early in the morning.

Rin was not a morning person; she never had been one and never would be one either. Sleeping in was one of her favourite things to do in a morning.

She almost never got to do so though. If one forgot about the, admittedly quite numerous, times she overslept, she would always rise at seven, either for research or for school. She only got to actually sleep in once or twice a month, at most.

Those were fantastic mornings though, where she could just lay in bed without worrying about being late and without feeling guilty about wasting precious research-time.

And now someone was disturbing her, forcing her out of bed, on one such special mornings.

'Ding-dong'

With an annoyed groan, she lifted herself off her bed and went into the bathroom to make herself presentable. The incident with Emiya seeing her after she'd just crawled out of bed was still fresh in her mind. There was no way she was going to allow such a thing to happen again.

It was around ten minutes later that Rin made her way to the gate, intending to give whoever it was a piece of her mind. Had they never heard of visiting at a proper time? Like, after twelve or something.

She didn't however have any idea as to who it could be. She wasn't expecting anyone, mail wouldn't be delivered until later and she hadn't ordered anything that had to arrive in a package.

At this point, the only thing she could think of was that the Magus who was living in her territory without permission felt the need to bribe her again after the spectacle from two nights ago.

Hopefully, he hadn't used Emiya-kun for that again. She really didn't want him to become involved in this whole mess.

Only because it could endanger the secrecy of the Moonlit World! That was the only reason she didn't want him involved. Nothing else. It wasn't like she was angry at him for only visiting at the behest of others and then leaving as quickly as he came!

When she opened her door however, she wasn't greeted by Emiya, or anyone else around her age, but by a classy-looking man with an almost sour look on his face and a redheaded woman instead.

"Who are you?" Rin blurted out, caught off guard by the strange people knocking on her door.

"Good morning, Tohsaka-san." The man said, giving a small bow. "I am lord El-Melloi the Second, from the Archibald family. I am here in my function as a representative of the Clocktower to speak with you about the recent developments concerning your case. The woman next to me is Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Enforcer in my service. May we come in?"

Rin froze, a feeling of immense shock, dread and utter shame pooling in her stomach as the man introduced himself.

A lord! There was a lord standing in front of her door! A lord was visiting her! _Her!_

S-She had made an actual lord from the Clocktower wait for her! She had taken all the time in the world to answer the door, while a _lord_ had been the one standing outside!

What the hell was she supposed to do now?

"…Welcome. Please come in."

It was said almost mechanically, as Rin tried suppressing all of her emotions to prevent stuttering, flailing, or even a full breakdown. She couldn't afford to look even worse than she no doubt already did.

Her mind was reeling however, as she tried to think of what was going on. What developments did he mean? What was that about _her_ case? Did he mean the Magus who had been running rampant through her territory? Did he mean the mercenary that had been delivered to Kirei and sent to the Clocktower by the priest? Or did he mean something else entirely, something she hadn't even known about?

"Thank you, Tohsaka-san." Lord El-Melloi nodded, walking past her as she took a step aside, the Enforcer following behind him.

After closing the gate, Rin led them inside through the empty hallways to the dining room, sneaking glances at her guests. While the redheaded woman maintained a fully professional demeanour, the lord seemed to be getting antsy, as evidenced by the shifting eyes, shaking hands and light sheen of sweat on his forehead, even though the house was cold due to a faulty heater.

Nonetheless, by the time they arrived at the table, he had composed himself again.

Rin made sure they sat comfortably, before serving tea, which, after a quick check for poisoning, was gladly accepted by both guests.

"Thank you for the tea." Lord El-Melloi said, nodding slightly at her as he took a sip. "Please be at ease, Tohsaka-san. You are not being accused of anything and nothing that has happened was in any way your fault or responsibility. I am merely here to inform you on several matters that we think you should know of."

Rin could only just suppress a sigh of relief at those words, the notion that they weren't here because she did something wrong lifting a load off her shoulders. She limited her reaction to a small nod however.

"The first of those matters is that several Sealing Designees were recently captured, here in Japan, by a bounty hunter, in a town called Hiraizumi, about a four-hour drive away from here. These Magi had been hunted by the Clocktower for several years but were finally captured recently." The lord explained.

"Ah, that is good to hear." Rin said carefully. "But what does that have to do with me?"

"I'm getting to that." Lord El-Melloi answered after another sip of his tea. "You see, these Sealing Designees concocted a scheme several years ago, a plan to abduct as many people as possible in order to use them in their experiments, without permission of any kind from the Clocktower or anyone else. They abducted and killed thousands before an end could be put to it."

Rin nodded in understanding, carefully hiding the utter disgust she felt at the actions of those Magi. Once again a small part of her mind questioned why she even continued devoting her life to a Craft that only seemed to take from her, as it often did while she was particularly done with the play that was her life now.

Those thoughts were quickly forgotten as the faint memory of a large hand roughly patting her head and a smile that would have better suited being called a grimace arose from the recesses of her mind.

"However, these Magi were not content with just that." The lord went on. "They wanted more than just Mundane test subjects. They wanted a real Magus, for a greater progression of knowledge than if they experimented on just ordinary people."

Lord El-Melloi leaned forward, his eyes gaining a sharp look, and Rin's stomach twisted even further, as she realised what he was about to say.

"They hired the mercenary you recently sent to the Clocktower through the Church, with the explicit purpose of abducting you, so that they could use you for their research. I assume I don't have to tell you what that would have entailed."

Rin felt sick, absolutely sick, her fingers tightening unconsciously around her cup. To think she had come close to falling into the hands of such scum, to being used as a test-subject by those, those monsters.

Next to sick however, she also felt nervous. If they were captured already, then why was this lord here? Did he expect a reward? She couldn't afford giving him any kind of substantial payment.

She wanted to hurl, yet with great effort, she managed to keep her expression neutral, her Magus-persona smoothly sliding into place to hide her emotions with practiced ease.

"Then I am glad that you managed to capture them." She said after a few seconds, having recomposed herself enough to answer the lord in a neutral tone and steady voice. "It would have been… unpleasant to fall into their hands."

"Quite unpleasant most likely." The lord agreed. "Forgive me for asking though, but can I assume from your words that you had no idea you were being targeted, even though you did capture the mercenary they sent to abduct you?"

Rin didn't allow a single facial muscle to twitch in response to the lord's question, even though she wanted to flinch hard.

"I… didn't capture that mercenary myself." She reluctantly admitted after a few moments. "He was delivered at the Church with a note that we, the priest and I, could claim the bounty for his capture. We didn't wake him up, we just handed him over to the representatives of the Church."

"Who delivered him to the Clocktower, and into my hands." Lord El-Melloi finished, seemingly deep in thought, before a realisation seemed to hit him. "Never mind that then, someone else must have captured him."

"Right." Rin said, bowing her head slightly. The man seemed to know more than he let on, but she was hardly in a position to pressure him for information. "My most sincere apologies that I cannot help you further."

"There is nothing to apologise for." The lord said with a casual wave of his hand. "Now, I actually came here to inform you that the Magi themselves were also captured, by a bounty hunter, who turned them over to us. There is no need to fear them anymore."

Rin nodded again, inwardly sighing in immense relief, yet outwardly only allowing a small smile to form on her lips.

"I also came here to question you about any knowledge you might have of them, but if you know nothing, then there's nothing more to talk about." Lord El-Melloi continued after a few seconds. "Except if there's anything else you might wish to report now that I am here?"

"…Hm, no. I have nothing more I can tell you about this." Rin said, tightening her hold on her Magus mask even more, trying to envision she was just having a conversation with Emiya and Mitsuzuri. "Nothing else of note has happened in my city."

There was no way she was going to confess she had been unable to deal with a rogue Magus in her territory up until now. No matter how understanding _this_ lord might be of her situation, that information _would_ make its way to the Clocktower and it _would_ ruin her reputation before she had even set one foot inside.

She had to stay in control now, show no single sign of more nervousness than was appropriate. She couldn't allow him to notice that she was lying.

"Understood. Now, that concludes my official business here. Off the record however, I have a few private matters I have to take care of as well." Lord El-Melloi continued, reaching into his jacket to pull out a small bag, which he opened to reveal four gems. "I would… appreciate it if you could stay silent on the matter in your capacity as Second Owner."

"Of course." Rin said without hesitation, relieved with the change of topic and not about to deny a lord a favour, much less one he actually paid her for. Furthermore, she still owed him for dealing with the Magi where she had been unable to. "As long as you do nothing illegal by Magical law and cause me no trouble."

"I won't cause any trouble for you, Tohsaka-san, and I'll keep to the law."

"Very well."

That concluded their conversation, as the lord and his… assistant, rose from their seats. Rin walked them back to the gate, where they politely said their goodbyes.

"Be well, Tohsaka-san." Lord El-Melloi smiled kindly. "If you ever come the Clocktower, seek me out. I'm sure we'll have a lot to talk about."

"Take care, kid." The redheaded woman said unceremoniously. "You seem alright, I'd hate it if you died."

"Have a good day, I look forward to seeing you again." Rin replied pleasantly, finally managing to get her emotions under complete control and put her mask back on… now that it didn't matter anymore.

Closing the door and walking back to her room, Rin fell down on her bed, groaning in agitation. Her first conversation with a lord, and she had been caught off guard so many times she hadn't been able to even remotely approach the subject of a sponsorship, or even the Clocktower in general.

That barely mattered however, compared to the massive Gandr-shot she had apparently unwittingly dodged recently.

A group of Sealing Designees had been planning to abduct her for their sick experiments, to further their studies. She had been extremely close to being reduced to a labrat or worse. What was she supposed to do with that information?

She knew Magi were hard and cold, that they barely cared about who they hurt in their pursuit of knowledge, but this drove that home harder than any story or warning ever could. If the Clocktower hadn't interfered when they did…

Or had they?

Wasn't it actually that bounty hunter who had taken them down before they could actually harm her? Could that be the same one that had caught the mercenary before he could abduct her?

If so, then they had effectively saved her from a gruesome fate twice already.

Rin wasn't naïve enough to believe they had done it for her though. It was probably more for the profit they could make off capturing wanted criminals than to help someone else, but still, she owed that person a debt, one she wasn't planning on shrinking from.

If only she knew who it was.

…

Maybe the Matou knew something? Zouken had lived here for a long time, and it wasn't unlikely that he had ways to watch over the city she couldn't even imagine yet.

She normally wouldn't even consider visiting them, yet with the rogue Magus running around and Sealing Designees targeting her before being stopped by strangely altruistic bounty-hunters, she couldn't afford to be picky with her allies.

Besides, she was the Second Owner. It was part of her duties to check up on the Magi living within her borders, yet she had never done so. It was high time by now that she laid down the law and reminded them that this city was in fact being watched over.

She would visit the Matou tomorrow… Hopefully when Sakura wasn't home.

For now however, her bed's siren calls were drawing her right back to its warm embrace.

* * *

The conversation with the Second Owner had gone pretty well, all things considered.

The walk to the mansion had been nerve-wracking, and his stay there even more so. Every second spent there reminded him of that day eight years ago, when Archer, the very same Archer that served the Tohsaka-family, had killed Rider in front of his eyes. It had been the first time Waver had been confronted with that kind of power, power that could crush him like an ant, and it had clearly left its mark on him.

He hadn't been able to suppress his irrational fears, his stupid mind constantly reminding him he was in the liar of the beast, warning him that Archer was just around the corner, that there was no escape from the one who had killed his Servant and liege. He supposed he should be happy his outward reaction had been limited to some nervous ticks, instead of, for instance, tripping over his own feet or something.

He was quite sure however that his host had noticed his reaction.

What was interesting to note was that Waver had been able to pick up that, just like him, the Tohsaka-heiress had been incredibly nervous herself, from the moment she laid eyes on him and Bazett until the moment they had left again, maybe even after.

A bit curious, but he had seen no reason to point it out.

He understood her nervousness, truly. Having a lord suddenly appearing at your door on any random morning would be shocking and unexpected for almost everyone, especially in Japan, where the culture of respect was quite a bit stronger than in the Western World.

Hearing she had been targeted by a group of Sealing Designees that wanted to turn her into their personal guinea-pig probably hadn't helped either.

In turn, he had been shocked to hear that she hadn't been the one to capture the mercenary, even though she had in fact been the one to send him off and receive the reward for his capture.

His confusion hadn't lasted long though, as he had recalled almost instantly just who had taken down the Magi. He might not know Fujimaru all that well, but he could already tell that letting someone else claim the reward for his work fit his character perfectly.

He had allowed Waver to do so after all, while receiving almost nothing in return.

He had not told Tohsaka of Fujimaru however. The boy had asked him to be as discreet as possible about his existence, and Waver was planning to do just that. He prided himself on being a man of his word after all. Besides, it was unlikely Tohsaka would ever meet the boy in the first place.

Anyway, once he had informed her of everything that involved her and she had admitted she had no further knowledge about the Magi, their conversation was over. He didn't want to be rude, but he had more to do today.

Ultimately, his impression of the girl was a tentatively positive one. He had a strong hunch she might actually be a soft-hearted person beneath the possible masks she was wearing.

Not that it seemed to impair her ability as a Magus. Nothing had indicated she was in any way below average with that, and as a teacher, he certainly would have noticed that.

Fortunately, the girl had not protested when Waver had practically bribed her to allow him to handle his private matter in peace. To be honest, he was quite sure she would have let him even if he didn't bribe her, but he didn't want to pressure her without giving anything in return. Moreover, his years had the Clocktower had taught him the importance of incentives.

Anyway, now that the Magical side of his plans was over and done with, it was time to move on to the Mundane side.

He had dismissed Bazett a few minutes ago, telling her to head back to the hotel, before he walked to the other side of the city from where the Tohsaka-estate was located. This was something he wanted to do alone. Something he _had_ to do alone.

The house he eventually reached looked the same as it had all those years ago, complete with the owner of the house mowing the grass, something he still did every week, and his wife sitting on a bench in the garden, watching him work as she poured his tea.

It made for a peaceful picture, one Waver was loath to disturb, yet that choice wasn't his to make anymore. Not when he had already walked up to them so openly.

"Waver, my boy." Glen McKenzie called out from where he stood, a large jovial smile on his face, his appearance suggesting nothing but a harmless old man, hiding the immense amount of willpower that had allowed him to break free from Waver's hypnosis through sheer stubbornness alone.

"Oh, my dear Waver." Martha cried in joy, rising from the bench as soon as she saw him. "What a happy surprise to see you here, it's been too long."

"Far too long." Waver agreed, bowing formally, before stiffening slightly as first Glen and then Martha hugged him. His unresponsiveness didn't seem to bother them though, and he went on. "I was in Fuyuki-City for business, and I couldn't just leave without visiting you first."

Glen laughed out loud, patting Waver on the back, while Martha smiled gently, reaching up to pinch his cheek.

"That is very kind of you, Waver." She laughed softly. "I wish our every grandson would have a mindset like you, but I suppose not everyone can be as kind as you."

Waver smiled, but it was a brittle thing. He didn't know if he could be considered 'kind' in any way. He was a Magus after all, and a liar besides. He had hypnotised Glen and Martha, and though Glen had broken free from it, Waver knew he was more akin to a cuckold.

He was shaken from his musings by a hand on his shoulder, which turned out to be Martha, who was looking at him compassionately.

"I mean it, Waver. You are a kind man, no matter what you believe you might have done wrong. I'm sure the people around you won't judge you as harshly as you judge yourself."

Waver was silent for a few moments, the gears in his mind turning rapidly, before he nodded silently.

"Come in, my boy." Glen then called out after putting the lawnmower in the shed, already on his way to the door, breaking the contemplative mood. "I'll make some more tea and we can talk about what you've been up to recently."

"You don't have to drop everything you were doing just because I came by." The Magus protested, but it fell on deaf ears as Glen walked inside and Martha, after gathering the cups in the garden, followed right after him.

So with a sigh that was equal parts consternation and fondness, Waver followed them inside.

Inside the house, nothing seemed to have changed since he had left. The walls, the interior and even the general mood of the house were the same, and Waver could almost swear he had last been there only yesterday, rather than over ten years ago.

The same decorations, the same carpets on the floor, the same colours on the walls, even the same tv where Rider had played his games, wearing his advance T-shirt. Waver still didn't understand just how that piece of clothing had fit the enormous man.

He could almost see it before him, Rider guaffing loudly at some corny joke Glen told him, while slapping Waver on the back, Martha watching them fondly from the side as she cooked dinner.

He knelt at the table just as Martha poured him a cup of tea, she and Glen already sitting primed and ready to start one of their tea-time sessions.

Waver truly appreciated their efforts, and he wouldn't say no to tea either, but it was still a bit much for them to just upend their entire schedule merely for him. From what he had heard of them over the years, they had kept themselves busy since he left, and didn't want to intrude too much in their lives.

When he brought that up however, Glen and Martha laughed merrily again.

"We don't really have a schedule, my boy." Glen chuckled. "These days, we just go where our mood takes us. We've told you a bit in our letters, but those were just the big things, like those cruises to the United States and the trip to Europe, but we also do a lot of other things. Cycling, driving through the countryside, going to festivals and concerts, we try everything we can find."

"Indeed." Martha smiled. "Why, just last week we were off to Urayasu, to visit an old friend of ours. We hadn't seen her in quite a long time, but we were delighted to find that it was going so well with her. It's a lot cleaner than it used to be, that city."

"Not to mention last year, when we went to the Northern mountains for a week or so. That was quite something, Waver, let me tell you. All those young daredevils skiing down the mountains, what a show that was."

"It sounds riveting, and I suppose I am fortunate that you aren't on one such trips now. It would have been a shame to miss you completely on the one day I was able to visit you."

"Ah, worry not, my boy. We don't go on large trips like that anymore. Visiting a friend in a nearby city is the limit of it these days. We can't quite manage larger trips anymore."

"What do you mean you can't manage it anymore?" Waver asked in concern. Surely they couldn't be sick? They both looked fine to him. "What's bothering you?"

"Nothing but old age." Glen smiled reassuringly. "So don't you worry one bit. We aren't as young as we used to be, and the time is nearing that we have to make room for the next generations. We've had our time, and neither of us have any regrets. Not now that you have visited us again, my boy. We missed you a great deal, and a visit is so much better than even all the letters in the world."

"But enough about us, Waver." Martha interrupted, handing him his cup of tea. "We've still got quite a few years left in us, even if we have to take it easier these days, so there's no reason to worry and fret about these two old people. Now, why don't you tell us what you've been up to these past few years."

Waver held the teacup in a grip that might have been a tad stronger than necessary as he contemplated on what to tell his surrogate grandparents, and what he should lie about, or just not mention.

They might know some things, such as him being far from normal, but that didn't mean he could just tell them about the Moonlit World so freely. That way lied only disaster. Telling a few people here and there really started to stack up after a while.

Perhaps an altered version of the truth would do…?

"I have been pretty successful over the past years." Waver eventually began, deciding to tell the truth as much as possible while omitting anything relating to the Moonlit World. "I even managed to take over the position of my former mentor, which is a pretty good job, if I do say so myself."

"Take over his job?" Glen asked with a raised eyebrow. "I do remember you mentioning that in one of your letters, but you never elaborated on what happened exactly. Did something happen to him, did he leave it to you when he retired, or was he a jerk that you rightfully pushed from his place?"

"We were certainly on very bad terms." Waver huffed, remembering the dead threats and everything else that had been heaped on him by Kayneth. "But he was murdered around eight years ago."

Martha pressed a hand to her mouth in shock, and Glen frowned heavily. Waver blinked in response, before he almost facepalmed as he remembered brutal murders were decidedly not normal outside of the Magus Community.

"Was he killed because of his position?" Glen asked sharply, setting down his teacup with great force. "Are you saying you are also at risk of being murdered?"

"No, no, not at all." Waver shook his head, trying to calm them down. "The position I hold is a wanted one, and I'm definitely making enemies with it, but that goes for almost every high-end job these days. I'm not at particular risk of being murdered soon, my mentor merely made the mistake of picking battles with the wrong people while there was no need to."

His words didn't really seem to set them at ease, but they didn't press the issue, merely urging him to be careful.

Waver promised he would be careful, but he knew very well that his position was a dangerous one. He was a Magus after all, and a Lord besides, of course he wasn't safe or free from risk, death was a fundamental part of his whole lifestyle.

But then again, Kayneth had strolled into battle with his Crest, a fiancé that practically hated him and a Servant who he treated like trash, while being up against Emiya Kiritsugu…

One would almost think Kayneth had just been tired of life and committed suicide-by-Grail-War, his actions had simply been that stupid.

"Never mind my job and its risks though, why don't we talk about my students." He quickly went on in an effort to distract Glen and Martha from the dangers of his profession. "Or perhaps my research?"

"You are a teacher?" Martha asked in surprise. "Didn't you say you were a researcher mostly? I wouldn't have assumed you to be a teacher after all of this talk about murder and risk. I mean, aren't teachers really wanted these days? Why would they want to murder you?"

"It's not my main job, teaching is what I do on the side." Waver explained quickly, inwardly frowning as the conversation again went to uncomfortable places. "I teach other people and I do research in all kinds of subjects in the time I have left, mostly."

"I never knew that teaching and doing research could be side-jobs, especially when one does both of those." Glen said ponderously, rubbing a hand over his chin. "What is it that you do that allows you such freedom, while still bringing you so many enemies?"

"…I work for a big conglomerate, a research centre of sorts where people from all over the world can pool their work to compare it, and work together to discover new things. It's a big organisation, and my main job is to play a small leading and administrative role in the whole."

"Some kind of leadership function?" Martha asked in an awed voice. "How fitting for you, Waver. What the name of this organisation though? I'm sure we can find some information on the phone-"

"I'd rather not say." Waver interrupted her sharply, before wincing at his own tone. "I-I'm sorry, I… cannot tell. It is forbidden to tell outsiders of… that place. We… are quite secretive, I guess."

He had expected the look of understanding in Glen's eyes, but it was a bit of a surprise to see the same look in Martha's. It was only then that he recalled Martha's words:

' _I wish our every grandson would have a mindset like yours'._

She had said 'our every' grandson, not 'I wish every', nor 'everyone's', but 'our every'...

She knew…

She actually knew he wasn't her real grandson, or at least heavily suspected it, yet she still accepted him as a grandson? _Her_ grandson?

He didn't know if he should laugh in delight or flail in confusion, but either of those two emotions, or both, was about to shut down his brain.

All fell silent after his words, breaking eye-contact and directing their attention elsewhere, choosing to refill the cups or fiddle with the carpet. An awkward silence stretched out, as all three tried to think of something to say without addressing the elephant in the room.

"It's… quite a fun job though." Waver eventually tried, after several minutes spend composing himself, his face morphing into what felt like a hundred different expressions. "I have some annoying superiors, but on the whole, they don't bother me much. I think I've really found my place in the world."

"Excellent, truly magnificent, my boy." Glen proclaimed quickly and proudly, trying to push the awkwardness away. "It's good to hear that you consider your life a success."

It mostly seemed he was happy to see that, in what was his opinion, Waver was no longer risking his life recklessly, a lesson the old man had tried to impart on him on the very rooftop of this house, after having broken free from the hypnosis and having deduced that Waver was partaking in a life-and-death battle.

"It's truly amazing, my dear Waver." Martha smiled tenderly, placing a hand on his arm. "What about your colleagues though? You've talked about what you do, and your bosses, but you haven't mentioned any friends."

"That's because my job and working environment doesn't allow for friends." Waver sighed, feeling a long-held knot in his stomach finally loosen with the frank admission. "Everyone is out for their own gain, and the ones that you can trust as few and far apart. Just recently one tried to steal my latest research, and though that failed, it is but one example of the bad crowd."

"That doesn't sound like a productive place to work, surrounded by those people." Martha said aghast. "Why do you interact with them if they are so-, so rotten?"

"I don't have much of a choice." Waver admitted sheepishly. "They are after all my employers and employees, my teachers and students, my colleagues and my partners. Besides, when you understand what makes them tick, it isn't all that difficult. Most of them want respect, they want to conduct their research, to get everything they need for it, regardless of how many people they hurt in the process. Everyone wants to be important and feared, and jealousy is a large part of the community. If you remember that, navigating through it isn't very difficult."

"Sounds like a bunch of spoiled brats to me." Martha huffed condescendingly.

"…" Waver really wanted to protest that, but, when he really thought about it, he found he couldn't dispute her statement. The scales were very different, and the stakes were a lot higher, not to mention it was a lot eviller and more cynical, but in essence, Martha was right.

They were really a bunch of spoiled brats…

Well… more insight was always a good thing?

A laugh from Glen pulled his attention back again.

"Don't confront that poor boy with the truth like that." He reprimanded his wife. "Just because this brings to mind five-years-olds pulling the legs of a spider to see what happens, and savagely beating each other over toys, and happily backstabbing each other to gain the teacher's approval, doesn't mean you can just say that to his face."

"Thanks for your consideration, old man." Waver sighed.

"You are very welcome, Waver." Said old man beamed. "That said though, I have been meaning to ask, how's that business of yours going? The stuff you came to the city for?"

"Oh no, old man." Waver answered sharply. "I have been talking for way too long now. Let us first bring the conversation back to you again for some time, then we can continue talking about me."

"That is sweet of you, Waver." Martha smiled softly. "Well, like we said, all in all, we are doing quite well. We are still capable of going around town whenever we want, we keep up with the news and we are in good health according to doctor Tanaka."

"It's been a bit boring around here, I have to admit." Glen continued when Martha fell silent. "But we get by. We certainly aren't going to die any time soon."

"That's a relief to hear." Waver smiled. "Though I suppose a stubborn lot like you two wouldn't die that easily."

"You got that right." They answered simultaneously, prompting Waver to shake his head in fond exasperation.

"We old people are just a tough crowd, Waver, that's how things are, always have been." Glen said sagely, which actually fitted his appearance quite well. "It's also evident in the people we know, and we know a lot of people."

As they went on talking, Waver was surprised to learn just how well-connected his honorary grandparents were. From Julia who lived around the corner and Akina who worked at the barbershop, to Ekiken who owned a cosy little restaurant three cities over and Yakamochi who was a funeral undertaker at the other end of Fuyuki-City.

They were more well-connected than he was, and being connected was supposed to be a part of his job.

Was it true then, that all old people knew each other?

Would he have to be afraid of Zelretch, that old vampire, appearing behind him now?

A frightening prospect, and not one he wanted to think about. Therefore, he was grateful when the conversation moved back to him.

"I was in town to deal with a few old business partners of mine." He said, feeling that was close enough to the truth. "On arrival though, I discovered that they had been taken in by the police for unethical experiments and other similar charges."

"What were they doing the-" Glen started, before he fell silent. "I-I mean, damn, your co-workers are indeed a difficult lot if that's what happens to them."

"I never liked them anyway." Waver responded with an uncaring shrug. "There is not much more I can say about it though."

"So there's room for questions now?" Martha asked with an innocent expression, which turned evil when Waver nodded, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "Is there, perhaps, anyone you currently fancy, Waver? Can we expect great-grandbabies soon?"

"W-What?" Waver almost reared back in shock at the sudden question. "W-Why would you even ask that?"

"Come now my boy." Glen laughed, again clapping his hand on Waver's back, the previous mood seemingly forgotten. "You are our grandson, of course we want to know if you're going to settle down someday soon. We want great-grandchildren after all, as we've told you so often."

"You never told me that."

"Is it perhaps that maid that you mentioned in one of your letters? Dear, a forbidden office romance, that sounds like something out of the neighbour's eldest daughter's dramas."

Well, yeah, he did have a maid, but Waver didn't have the heart to tell them that said maid was made of mercury and would start trying to kill people if the word 'terminator' was so much as mentioned in her presence.

Not exactly dating-material, even if the whole mercury-thing had been absent.

Perhaps it was the painful expression on his face that caused Martha to follow up with her next blow.

"Oh, but don't worry, my sweet Waver. If you have your eyes on a nice man, that's completely fine too. We won't judge you. After all, condemning people over things like that is _so_ previous century."

"Are you trying to bait me? You are trying to bait me, aren't you?"

"No idea what you're talking about. When are we going to meet your boyfriend though?"

"I don't have one." Waver stressed frantically, rapidly waving his arms, while Glen and Martha were struggling to hold back their laughter.

Despite his embarrassment though, Waver couldn't hold back a smile. It had been years since he had been able to talk so freely, not since… well, the last time he was here, now almost eight years ago.

Somehow though, it felt like it had only been yesterday since he had heard the old man and Rider laugh together in the living room, working hard at out-drinking each other and constantly engaging in arm wrestling competitions… which they always dragged him into as well. He could still feel the pain of his fingers breaking as Rider 'lightly' enveloped Wavers tiny hands in his own.

It was nostalgic.

Before he knew it, many hours had passed already.

"Oh dear." Waver said as he looked down at his watch, his eyes widening as he saw the time. "Please forgive me, but it seems I have to leave again. I can't leave my team alone for too long, they might misbehave if I'm not there."

"You've been here for several hours already." Martha said with a grateful smile. "That is plenty. Don't forget to write us, dear, and don't go insane with the spoiled brats."

"I will endeavour not to." Waver laughed. "I hope your lives won't be too _interesting_ from here on, and do stay in good health. I pity the Shinigami that will be tasked with picking up the two of you."

Martha burst out in delighted cackles at his last jibe, while Glen huffed.

"Our lives will be plenty interesting. We have found a new hobby these days." The old man said with a smile that belayed how pleased he was at his own words. "We are following the famous vigilante Rakurai on his quest to defeat all evil."

"…Pardon me?"

"The new vigilante, Waver. He has been going around for a few months now, catching criminals left and right, all the while evading the police. People are going crazy about him. Look him up if you have the time."

"…Sure."

After saying his goodbyes to both Glen and Martha, along with a promise to write and to visit them again if it was at all possible, Waver left for the hotel he and his team were staying at.

His tasks here were done now. All that was left was going home, or what counted as home for him, and wait for Fujimaru to contact him.

As well as a thousand other menial tasks of course. The work of a lord was never done.

* * *

Sakura was pondering deeply about the future. Her own future to be precise, but also that of her Senpai and that of her closest friend, Ayako.

She, along with her Senpai, had just returned to his- _their_ house, after finishing their statements at the police office and saying goodbye to the Mitsuzuri-family. Giving their accounts had taken the whole morning, and it was almost time for lunch now.

Fujimura-sensei had already told them she wouldn't be present for the meal. She had been there for breakfast today, and would be for dinner, but she couldn't make it to lunch because of a meeting at her school.

That was actually quite convenient for Sakura, as she had some… sensitive topics she needed to discuss with her Senpai.

Preparing lunch was as fun as ever, even more now that the issue with Zouken was over. Without the enormous weight and stress pressing down on her, Sakura had more fun than ever before, even though cooking with her Senpai was something she had done hundreds of times.

The meal was finished in the blink of an eyes, and before long, Sakura and Shirou were peacefully eating as they chatted about mundane things.

Sakura flinched however as she received yet another minor shock from somewhere when she sat down. She wasn't completely sure why, but there had been a lot more static electricity in the air than normal.

She was almost certain Senpai was the origin, but she didn't really know how to address it. Since it was getting less and less over time though, she had decided to let it be for now. They had far more important issues to deal with after all.

"Senpai." She suddenly said in a far more serious tone, making him sit up straight as he noticed the change in atmosphere. "How exactly are we going to do this? L-Living together I mean. I don't think I can just move in expecting that everything will just go smoothly, so maybe…"

"Ah, good that you remind me." Shirou said, snapping his fingers in realisation. "We do have several things we need to discuss about that. You are of course right that we do have to take care of several things in order for you to live here. First of all, keys. I have several spare ones, so you can have one of those."

After a quick trip to somewhere in the house, he returned with a key, which was promptly handed over to her.

"Besides that, I have a bank account that I use for the daily expenses. I'll allow you access to it as well." He continued, writing a reminder on a piece of paper. "Some of dad's money and the salary for my job go there. In about three days, your cart should arrive and then you can take money from it as well."

"You already picked your room, you have a futon, and we can go buy more stuff for you this afternoon. I saw you didn't have much, so you'll need some new clothes, perhaps a computer, toiletries certainly and some other things."

As her Senpai kept writing down point after point on the piece of paper, the plum-haired marvelled at just how much went into managing a household. It was a good thing he was so capable already, because she would have floundered hard at this point.

Really, it was a good thing her Senpai was taking care of that, because Sakura had actually only intended to use her question about living together as a way to bring the topic over to Ayako.

Sakura had had the immense luck that the brunette had interpreted Sakura's offer to let her have Shirou as a proposal to share him, and though she felt terrible about the deception, it meant that a relationship with Senpai and Ayako was still possible.

Not that she minded sharing with Ayako of course. In fact, it would probably only help her a lot to have a friend with her in a relationship. Being a proper girlfriend sounded like it would be very difficult, so if she had someone to share with, all the better.

However, a relationship with Ayako would be nigh-impossible if they kept more than half of their life a secret from her, the Magical half to be precise.

If they didn't tell her, then either it would cause friction when Ayako would inevitably realise they were hiding things, or she might find out herself regardless of their attempts at the contrary, and freak out.

Shirou had been able to keep him being a Spell Caster a secret from both Ayako and Sakura before, but only because Sakura herself had never dared pry into his personal life and had dogmatically avoided everything that reminded her of Magecraft, while Ayako simply wasn't around enough to notice anything strange.

Sakura herself knew all about her Senpai now, so there were no problems anymore on her end.

Should Ayako become their girlfriend however, the girl was bound to notice their secrecy, and that would cause arguments and friction.

As such, preventive measures had to be taken.

She patiently waited for her Senpai to finish his list, taking careful note of everything he said. It was all practical and very useful information to remember, and it was only polite to listen.

While she did so however, her mind started to wander. She still could barely believe it, that she was actually here right now, in Senpai's house. It all felt like a dream, yet no matter how often she pinched herself, or held her breath and counted to ten, nothing changed.

She was still right here, living with Senpai, being friends with Ayako, having them both by her side. Fujimura-sensei was still a bottomless pit, and gran- Zouken was still dead.

She was free now. _She_ was free. She was _free_. She was free and everything seemed alright.

Granted, Nii-san was still gone because he couldn't bear to stay here, but he would return one day. She was sure he would.

"And that's usually the schedule I maintain for the washing machine." Shirou said as she tuned back in, writing it down to better remember it. "That's everything I wanted to say. Don't worry if you didn't remember all of it, I will repeat it as often as necessary."

"Thank you, Senpai. I'll be sure to do my part in the household." Sakura promised, before taking the chance to present her own issue. "But there is something else that we really need to talk about right now."

"Oh, what is it?" Shirou asked curiously.

"Ayako. She is becoming a… very good friend, isn't she? She's getting closer and closer to us, and I… heavily suspect she will get even closer in the near future."

"Ah, I suppose so. That's not a bad thing though, right?"

"Not at all." Sakura said with a happy smile. "I am very glad about it, Ayako is amazing, but I merely worry what will happen when she realises that we are keeping things from her, because I do not doubt she _will_ realise that sooner or later."

"She is certainly intelligent and socially aware enough to see through us if given the opportunity." Shirou agreed with her. "I take it you have an idea to deal with that though."

"I do. We simply tell her the truth."

Sakura sat up straight after her blunt proposal, ready for the dismissal that would no doubt follow her suggestion. Revealing the Moonlit World to Mundane people without a very good cause was heavily frowned upon at best and downright illegal at worst. Nevertheless, she had prepared several arguments for when her Senpai would protest against her decision-

"That does sound like the best idea. We'll tell her at the first opportunity then." Shirou nodded.

"…Eh? Just like that?" Sakura asked in astonishment.

"Well, yes." Shirou said with a shrug, giving her a lopsided smile. "I am no Magus, and neither are you. We are not affiliated with the Clocktower or the Church and they barely bother with Asian countries anyway. I think we can tell her without consequences. After all, isn't she our friend?"

"She is." Sakura agreed instantly, having no doubt in her mind about that. "When will we tell her though?"

"Well, let's see. School is starting tomorrow again for me, so the mornings are out, but the afternoons and evenings are free, except the day after tomorrow, then Neko-san needs my help again at the café. Perhaps we can ask when Ayako is free and go from there?"

"That does seem like the best idea." Sakura agreed. "I'll ask her when I see her again."

"Weren't you excused from school for the coming week?" Shirou asked, cocking his head to the side. "Because your house burned down, your grandfather died in the fire and your brother disappeared without a trace?"

"Yes, I suppose I was." Sakura confirmed with a sweat drop appearing on her head. When it was put like that, it sounded like she had had the worst weekend ever, while it actually had been, rather paradoxically, the best one of her life. "But I'll manage to get a hold of her one way or another, and I'll have her pick a time when you can be present as well."

"Thank you." Shirou smiled. "Do you know when you'll be seeing her again?"

"We were planning to meet at her house tomorrow actually." Sakura informed him, neglecting to tell him just what their 'meeting' would be about. "I can ask when she will be free for a long conversation with the two of us."

"Please do." Shirou nodded. "With you, I had the advantage that you already knew of the Moonlit World. Ayako does not, so the explanation will be lengthy. I would like to get it all over with in one conversation though, so we should pick a day where we'll have plenty of time.

Sakura pondered over that for a moment, trying to remember what Ayako's schedule looked like, before smiling brightly when she remembered it again.

"How about in four days? From what I recall, Ayako will have the entire afternoon free and so will you, Senpai. We should have enough time then if we invite her for dinner and to stay the night again."

He nodded approvingly to her suggestion, making her chest swell with pride. She was always happy to be useful to him, especially since those occasions were so incredibly rare.

"Can you invite her then when you see her tomorrow?"

"I will." Sakura answered brightly. "Though if she refuses, I'll try to find out when she is actually free."

"Thank you, Sakura." Shirou said with another smile, finishing the last of his food, before reaching out to pat her head. "I can always count on you, and I'm very glad you are my friend."

And while they cleaned the dishes and the table, Sakura once again felt like she was floating on air.

* * *

"Ngh."

Yomaura Taya couldn't suppress a hiss of agitation as she once again stabbed the needle far too deep into her finger, drawing far more blood than she intended, her exhaustion and remaining fever causing her hands to become unsteady and the world to spin and the needle to go awry.

She needed only a few drops of blood to draw the Runes, not entire streams of the stuff, that was incredibly wasteful, and painful besides.

She put the finger in her mouth and let her natural constitution take care of the rest. She didn't let the blood that had come out already go to waste however, drawing furiously with her other hand.

She only had an hour or so before her Senpai would arrive to help her collect her stuff and take it to his house for her stay there, and she had to make the most of it now that she still could, making Runestones and all kinds of other things in preparation for a fight she knew was coming.

After she had seen Rakurai that night, she ran straight home. With the spectacle the vigilante had displayed, it was clear that a few Runes and some Spells weren't going to cut if she wanted to fight him, even on favourable grounds, so she had to prepare herself far better than she had.

She had spent the rest of that night crafting Runic Arrays on several pieces of clothing, as well as on stones and rocks, on pieces of paper and on basically everything else that could be used in combat.

She had created defences around her own and her Senpai's house too that very same night. They were the strongest protective spells and Runic Arrays she could make without alerting the Second Owner that something was amiss, but she was ready to add even more should it be necessary, Tohsaka's opinion be damned.

All of it in a single night too, even though the storm had raged for hours before quieting down. It certainly had a productive time.

It had come at a cost however. While doing all of that, she had pushed far past her limits. Her years of inaction had resulted in a major loss of skill and power, and she was definitely feeling it.

To make a long story short, she was far too rusty to suddenly return to action like that.

She had completely emptied her Circuits of Od, until not a drop had been left, having severely miscalculated her reserves. Or actually, she hadn't even paid any attention to her reserves, she had just worked and worked and worked.

It had greatly strained her Circuits, pushing them much further than they could handle, which was only possible because they had started draining her stamina as well.

She supposed she was fortunate that it had just been her stamina and energy, as her foolish actions could very well have killed her had it gone even just slightly different.

Despite that, she hadn't stopped working until the sun rose, and only because the loss of blood and the exhaustion had affected her so much that she had collapsed where she stood.

Fortunately, she had been at home at the time, and after recovering from the sudden light-headedness, she had bandaged herself as well as she could, before dragging herself to her bed.

To her eternal shame, she hadn't thought about work or her partner at all at that moment, even though she was supposed to be at the precinct in three to four hours. She had completely forgotten about that.

She had fallen asleep at once when her head hit the pillow, and she hadn't woken up until evening, the entire day having passed by, with her Senpai standing over her, ice and bandages in his hands and immense worry in his eyes.

She had realised immediately how it would have looked from his perspective, how shocked and horrified he had to be.

She hadn't known what to say, what to do, and though he had chosen not to press her for answers, she knew this incident would not be forgotten.

She still didn't have a plausible explanation to this day. How could she? How did you explain 'I cut myself bloody and I exhausted myself to the point of a nigh-lethal fever' in a way that would satisfy your loved ones?

She couldn't, and she couldn't see any way to get out from having to give them an explanation some day either.

Anyway, Senpai had taken care of her for a while, before taking her to his house when she had regained a bit of her strength, where Chiho and Suki had fussed over her until she fell asleep again.

She had slept for more than fifteen hours after that.

Fifteen hours!

It was ridiculous, especially considering she was still not healed yet despite that immense waste of time. Not to sound impatient, but she couldn't afford to be sick or tired, not with Rakurai still out there.

She was reasonable enough to admit though that it had all been her own fault. She had completely neglected to recall the lessons she'd had back with her family, and she supposed she should be grateful she hadn't blown herself up or caused critical damage to her Circuits or her body. Both had been very real possibilities.

So she wouldn't do that again. She would take it easier from now on, to avoid another disaster like that.

Senpai and the girls had not allowed her to move back to her apartment, citing that she was clearly not in good health. She had managed to negotiate a few hours to pack her stuff and finish some business however, which she was doing right now.

Packing her stuff had taken barely any time, and now she was continuing to work on her preparation for the fight against the Magus-vigilante for the little time that she had left before she would leave again.

She did take care this time to stay well within her own capabilities. If she managed to mess herself up again, Senpai would forever keep her a prisoner at his house.

At the same time however, she had some unexpected news to process.

When she moved to Fuyuki-City, she had fully intended to never associate herself with the Moonlit World again, in any shape or form.

As such, she had completely ignored the Tohsaka, the Matous, the priest and all others, and hoped that they would either not notice or ignore her in turn.

With these preparations she had been doing however, there was a considerable chance that some of them would in fact start noticing her.

Not Tohsaka though. Yomaura had no intention of being mean or of looking down on others, but the girl definitely wasn't of the observant sort, and her pet-priest just didn't seem to care.

She had far more to fear from Matou Zouken and his ilk. Zouken was old, he was experienced, he was observant, and that made him the most dangerous of them all.

At least, that was what she initially thought. When she had woken up after spending the night at her Senpai's place however, he had informed her that he would have to go and give a witness statement about a fire that had consumed the Matou-estate, leaving no survivors.

It had taken a royal amount of willpower on her part, not to mention the exhaustion from her previous… episode, to not react too violently or shocked to that, keeping her reaction on slight shock and polite empathy for the victims instead, all while her mind was racing.

She didn't believe for a second that the Matou-family would have been killed by something as simple as a housefire, so, logically, it had either been a ruse from them to fake their deaths, or this had been an attack on the family by an outside party.

Later that morning however, her Senpai informed her that the youngest members of the Matou-family had actually survived, and that they put the blame on Zouken himself for the fire that had claimed the Magus' life.

She had been ready at that point to write it off as a family-fight between Magi, a battle over the position of family-head, but Senpai had then casually dropped another bomb on her.

The girl, Matou Sakura if she wasn't mistaken, had been in the presence of an Emiya.

Yomaura, like every other person in the Moonlit World who hadn't grown up under a stone, had heard of the legendary Magus-Killer, Emiya Kiritsugu. The man had been considered to be among the greatest and worst of mercenaries in the world after all, if not simply _the_ best.

According to all reports, he had disappeared after the Grail War. Most thought he had died in the battle, and the doubters came around after there had been no single sign of him for years.

But now, her Senpai had informed her of an Emiya, hanging around in the city of the Grail War, who had been in the presence of a member of one of the three main Magus-families of the city, right after the head of said family had died from a cause he should never have died from.

She doubted that was a coincidence.

Okay, so it was entirely possible the Magus-Killer had survived and had settled in Fuyuki-City with a relative, maybe even a son, whom he had raised to take his place.

Maybe the assassination of Matou Zouken had been practice? Or a favour to a friend? Matou Sakura had clearly disliked Zouken a great deal, and if the man had been anything like Yomaura's own grandfather, she could definitely sympathise.

Maybe she should go and see what that was all about…

'SLAP'

Yomaura promptly slapped herself in the face, trying to beat away that asinine notion.

She had been going way off course there. She had other, far more important things to do than satiate idle curiosity and potentially expose herself to some people she shouldn't mess with.

Even if her theories concerning the Emiya and the Matou were right, it hardly mattered to her. Neither of them was the Second Owner, neither knew about her presence in the city, and she suspected neither would care all that much even if they did know.

Rakurai was a far more important problem at the moment, one she had to tackle with everything she had. She would have to bring her best game, or he would slap her aside.

She was of course more than aware that even her best might very well not be enough to take down that monster of a man. She had seen him in the middle of a storm, wrapped in lightning, and _flying_ , so she could confidently say that he was quite a bit more powerful than she was.

That didn't matter however. Even if he was far stronger than she would ever be, she'd still try her very best to fight him if he threatened Senpai or the girls. It was both her responsibility and the least she could do.

The years she had spent with Koyo and his daughters had been the best of her life. Her time in the family couldn't even begin to compare.

They had accepted her into their home without hesitation, shown her nothing but love even when she refused to talk about her past, and she would be damned if she didn't at least try to repay that.

So no matter how strong and powerful Rakurai was, if he came for them, he would find Yomaura in his way, and it would only be over her cold, dead body that he could proceed.

Why did he have to show up in her life anyway? What on Earth did he want? Which kind of Magus goes around beating up criminals in the night, before leaving them to the police?

She would probably never get an answer to those questions. Hopefully, she would never even get the chance to ask him either. If she went her entire life without ever meeting him, all the better.

She was already planning to sabotage the investigation if needed, should they ever get anywhere in the first place of course, to keep her colleagues away from something they weren't remotely ready to deal with.

It was illegal, not to mention almost treacherous, but she would do it if it meant saving their lives.

Pain then suddenly flashed through her body, making her grit her teeth and almost drop the Runestone she was holding.

Her Od-reserves were getting critically low again, and her Circuits were making their displeasure known quite clearly again.

Not wanting to repeat the mistakes she made two days ago, Yomaura decided to call it a day.

With a sigh, she unsteadily rose from her chair and took small, measured steps towards the bathroom, to grab the last of her stuff before Koyo would arrive to take her back to his house.

Her apartment was a fairly big one, quite luxurious too, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and even a small kitchen. All for a reasonable price too, and not too far from the precinct either.

It was very quiet though. She didn't have any housemates or pets, and even the neighbours were always silent. A sharp contrast to the lively atmosphere of the Osaki-house, where there was always sound and just a general feeling that people lived there.

Walking into her cold bedroom to grab some clothes, Yomaura found she had to amend her opinion a bit. She might not be able to make Runestones and the like at her Senpai's house, but it was much preferable to stay there than in her own desolate apartment.

Though she still had no story prepared to explain the state her Senpai had found her in…

She had never told him about her past, and neither had she told the girls, and she wasn't planning to either. They had no business in that part of the world, they were far too good and compassionate to survive in there.

Would they even believe her in the first place? Would they think her insane? If they did believe her, would they hate her for lying to them? For staying silent about such enormous secrets for so long?

She didn't know, and she wasn't planning on finding out either, though she liked to think they trusted her enough to believe her on her word at least.

'Ding-dong'.

Picking up her suitcase, Yomaura went to answer the door.

As expected, it was her Senpai standing there, here to give her a lift.

"Good evening." He smiled genially, the sight of it enough to lift her spirits a bit. "Are you ready to go?"

"I am, Senpai." She nodded, showing her suitcase.

"Is that enough for a week?"

"Yes, don't worry." She grinned, mentally wincing at the amount of time she wouldn't be able to use Magecraft. Again though, it was her own fault, she had no one to blame except herself for her insane excesses two days ago.

Now she would have to live with the consequences and the downsides of being foolish.

But then again, she mused as she followed her Senpai to his car.

It didn't feel like such a downside.

* * *

Rin stared with wide eyes at the ruin of what had once been the Matou-estate. The once so large and impressive, if rather decrepit, mansion now nothing more than ash and blackened stone.

She had seen the enormous cloud of smoke above the city, and she'd heard a house had burned down rather spectacularly, but she had never expected it to be the Matou-estate.

She licked her lips nervously, ruthlessly squashing the worry that was bubbling up inside of her. Zouken wouldn't let himself or his grandchildren die in something as mundane as a housefire.

…Right?

But where were they then? And what had happened to the estate that it had been destroyed to such an extent? Zouken better have a very good explanation for this.

He better also have found a good place to stay for him and his grandchildren. I-It would be unbecoming of a Magus to live on the s-street after all.

Pushing away the mental image of Sakura sitting outside in the cold, alone and in the rain, Rin fidgeted nervously, eyes still on the ruin. She… she still had to talk with Zouken, yes, to check if he knew anything about the rogue Magus, so she better search for him and his grandchildren, and o-offer them a place to stay.

I-In her function as Second Owner of course, it wouldn't do to let the Magi in her city bring down her image and reputation by living in bad conditions.

The question was how she would go about finding them however.

Several firemen were still loitering about at the ruin, busy with removing the rubble and checking for any possibly smouldering parts that would be dangerous to the public, though Rin could see they didn't really seem hurried or all that serious in their work.

She immediately approached the closest one. He didn't wear a uniform and seemed more of a volunteer or something, but he would do for now.

"Excuse me." She called out, waving at the man as she approached, making him look up at her. "Could I ask you something?"

The man had black hair, as most Japanese did, a nose that had obviously been broken several times before, a rather weak chin, and shifty eyes that widened when he saw her.

His eyes then roamed over her form, an all-too familiar lecherous glint appearing in them, as he took on a pose that was probably supposed to be macho and self-confident, making Rin stop dead in her tracks, several metres away from him.

"Well hello, little lady." He grinned, in a tone that was likely meant to be suave. "How can I help you? If you're looking for a good time, look no further."

Already regretting hastily flagging someone down, Rin forced a smile on her face and suppressed the urge to run away immediately.

"No thank you, I just wanted to ask if you knew what happened here?" She said, slowly scooting backwards again. There might be several metres between them, but that distance should be doubled at the very least in her opinion.

"Don't know really, some wacko old guy set his own house on fire to off himself. I'm just here because they needed people to work away the rubble. The pay is alright, and I needed the gig." The man shrugged, before giving her another lecherous smile. "I could find out more though, for the right price."

Rin had the distinct feeling he wasn't talking about money when he said that.

"That's okay." She smiled, now actually beginning to walk away. "You helped me a lot, thank you and goodbye."

With those words, she turned around and ran, missing how the man's eyes narrowed maliciously as he looked at her retreating form, his gaze locked onto her behind.

Taking deep breaths, Rin sighed in relief as she saw the guy wasn't following her. She wasn't going back there any time soon, that was certain. Not until all the work was done and she was certain he and his buddies weren't hanging around anymore.

She spared a moment to feel annoyed at the existence of men like him, before sighing deeply in resignation. She knew very well those types were everywhere, if only because they stood out so much. Her reputation of an idol drew them towards her like moths to flames after all, though for her, it was mostly limited to teens for now.

His words did play in her mind though. Zouken had died in the fire? Actually died? That was impossible, he was a very old and experienced Magus, he wouldn't die in a housefire. Not unless someone actively tried to make it so…

Rin froze for a moment, before shaking her head, chiding herself for jumping to conclusions. Zouken probably wasn't dead at all, so it made no sense at all to already condemn Saku- _someone,_ a random person somewhere, for his death.

She still didn't know what exactly happened though, but maybe she should ask the police for it rather than another unknown man on the streets.

As the police station wasn't too far away from the Matou-estate, Rin made her way over there immediately.

Entering and making her way over to the helpdesk, Rin felt relieved when she saw the obviously professional aid sitting behind the counter, wearing a suit, having several files in front of him, reading a magazine of some kind, and all in all giving off an air of a calm person who wouldn't sexually harass her.

"Excuse me?" Rin began again once she stood before the counter. "Could I ask you a question?"

"Certainly, young lady." The black-haired man said, putting away his magazine and giving her his undivided attention. "If you could just me who you are, I'd be happy to be of service."

"Tohsaka Rin, and I was wondering if you could tell me anything about the Matou-estate, and what happened to it." Rin said, trying to not let her nervousness show. They weren't dead after all, they had just relocated after the fire.

"Let's see." The aid mused, shifting through a few papers and typing a few things in his computer. "Ah, here it is. It seems Matou Zouken, the super-old guy that lived there, went bonkers a few days ago, and burned down the house after his grandson and granddaughter ran away from him to escape his abuse."

"Burned the house down?" Rin repeated in shock. "Abuse?!"

"Yeah, it was pretty bad apparently." The man nodded. "Poor girl was traumatised pretty badly, and from witness accounts, that old man was really bad news. It's completely understandable they ran away. After that, the guy torched his place, killing himself. Good riddance if you ask me."

"…What happened to his grandchildren?" Rin asked sharply. "Are they okay?"

"They are, miss, don't worry." The cop said, holding up his hands. "Well, we hope so at least. The brother disappeared after the fire, running away most likely, while the girl moved in with a friend, though we don't know how that's been going either."

"…I-I see." Rin muttered, sighing deeply in relief after a moment of thought. If Sakura moved in with a friend, then that friend could only be Emiya, only he would offer a permanent place at his house at a moments notice. If Sakura lived with him, then that was certainly a favourable outcome.

She didn't really know Shinji, but he probably already had some ideas on what to do, he was annoying, but according to Ayako, certainly not stupid.

Sakura now living with her crush was… good news, though she wondered how the other girl was going to hide her being a Magus from him.

"Thank you." She said, giving the aid a smile, which he readily returned.

"No problem, little missy. I was glad to help."

Giving him a nod, Rin walked out again, missing how the man's eyes narrowed in concentration, as well as how he immediately picked up a private phone once she was out of earshot.

"Hey, boss, Kyuwa-san." He murmured into the phone. "There was someone here just now I think you might be interested in… No, we don't have her on file, but she was very curious about that current case of yours… The one about the arson at the Matou-estate, yeah… A lot of pointed questions, I think she might be closely involved… Her name is Tohsaka Rin."

Completely unaware of her actions being reported, Rin stepped outside of the precinct… not sure of what she should be doing.

The police believed Zouken to be dead, which was, honestly, very unlikely. Again, an old and experienced Magus wouldn't die to a housefire. Rin did not have any way of contacting him however, or any other way of checking his status and health, outside of directly asking Sakura.

Which actually brought her to another point. If Zouken had indeed died, then it was very likely someone had 'helped' him a bit with that, and after hearing about him abusing his grandchildren…

Could it be that Sakura…

N-No, t-that was ridiculous. She wouldn't… She couldn't… Sakura would never…

Rin took a deep breath, brusquely forcing away the sentimentalities from her mind. She had to look at this objectively, with a detached view.

Sakura had been abused by Zouken, or that's what everyone believed at least. Sakura most likely also had the Crest of the Matou-family already, and was thus probably stronger than Zouken. There was also a considerable chance that she still harboured a grudge about what happened in their youth, and killing Zouken made her the head of the family, especially now that Shinji was out of the picture.

It meant she had both a reason and the means to kill him…

Rin shook her head rapidly at those thoughts. No, she was again jumping at conclusions, there was no proof for that at all, it could easily have been another Magus who wanted the research and possessions of the Matou-family.

But those wouldn't have left Sakura and Shinji alive…

She needed to talk to Sakura, and fast. She needed to confirm what had happened to them, and if she was alri- to make sure the new head of the Matou-family knew the rules of the territory.

She would have to plan extensively for that conversation though, as it probably wouldn't be easy at all to talk with her again.

Additionally, she would have to make sure Emiya wouldn't catch wind of what they would be discussing, that would be disastrous.

Y-Yes, the nervousness and fear she was feeling were just because she was afraid Emiya would overhear their discussion, no other reason.

Not a single other reason at all.

* * *

Waver had returned to the Clocktower, and he returned victorious.

It had been two days since meeting the Second Owner and catching up with Glen and Martha, and it had been about five to six days in total since he had left the Clocktower.

The flight back had taken the better part of the previous day, but at least it was a private plane this time. Not because he wanted more luxury, but more because he had been carrying three dead bodies and two unconscious people with him.

The chances he could have gotten all that past airport security were very small, so he'd had to hire a private plane and a trustworthy pilot.

It had admittedly been as boring as the outward journey, but with his targets already in his possession, he had been able to relax and enjoy the flight somewhat, no longer being as restless as before.

Getting the Sealing Designees from the London-airport to the Clocktower hadn't been any problem at all, and neither had getting them inside the building.

Having said that, it only got more difficult from there on, as he had to bring the Sealing Designees to the appropriate places in the Clocktower.

The three dead Magi would be used for experimentation. A rather ironic fate, considering what they had done to so many others. By becoming Sealing Designees, they had given up their right to be returned to their families or to have their bodies preserved and treated with respect.

The researchers in the department of dissection had been delighted when he had brought them the Magi, and Waver now had three favours from them that he could cash in on someday.

Richard Burgon, one of the survivors and also the leader of their little group, was set to be interrogated for every scrap of information he possessed. From what Waver had heard, his knowledge could be invaluable to the Enforcers. After that, he would be executed, and his body used for experimentation as well.

That had all been fairly easy, but the biggest problem was posed by the last of the Designees, Vincent Balefor, the other survivor and Waver's personal enemy, who was now lying in a cell, still unconscious and blissfully unaware of the mess he had found himself in.

The man was the only one of them to actually possess a Crest, which, since it had belonged to a Sealing Designee, might just be confiscated by the Clocktower or the higher nobles if Waver didn't act fast to save it.

He had already had his men remove the Crest from Balefor's body though, and was now on his way to return it. For the rest, he didn't care much for the criminal.

That fool had not only been Sealed, but he had also murdered a lord and his heir and insulted the Queen of the Clocktower herself.

Everyone would want a piece of him once it got out that he had been found and arrested, so Waver wanted to get the Crest back to the Balefor-family at least before he would make it known that the man had been captured. Once he had done that, they could all fight over the prisoner as much as they wanted, as Waver would wash his hands of the man and be done with it.

He should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

"Lord El-Melloi."

The voice was sharp as a knife, cutting through all other noise in the area and making the hairs on Waver's neck stand on end, despite the fact that the owner probably only meant to call out to him in a neutral way.

Waver stopped walking and turned around promptly, watching as Lorelei Barthomeloi effortlessly walked through the crowd. She didn't push or elbow anyone, rather the mass of people parted for her like the Red Sea for Moses.

Waver kept his face carefully neutral, though on the inside he was frowning. He had thought he would have more time before she would hear of his success, but apparently, he had been wrong.

"I heard from Enforcer Wesley that you managed to capture Vincent Balefor alive." She said, pinning him in place with her sharp gaze. "Is this true?"

"It is, lady Barthomeloi." Waver admitted, setting a reminder for himself to severely reprimand Wesley. The man was far too weak to beautiful women. "He is currently in a holding cell, awaiting trial. I was on my way to have a trusted assistant of mine inform his family before the news of his capture becomes public knowledge."

"I see." Barthomeloi huffed, crossing her arms. "I approve of this course of action. You may get back to it after our discussion is finished. Now come, my office is a far more _comfortable_ place to hold such discussions in."

Not seeing another choice, Waver promptly followed her. He was of course well-aware she was doing him a massive favour by being so accommodating to what amounted to a personal desire of his, so he made a note of the favour he now owed her in return.

The walk with the woman was silent, as neither Magus had anything to make small talk about. Waver could swear though that Barthomeloi had seemed about to start a conversation a few times, but they eventually arrived in her office without her having said a word.

It wasn't the first time he had been there, but the feeling of dread he felt every time he entered was still as prevalent as ever.

"So." Barthomeloi said as she sat down behind her desk, motioning him towards the comfortable-looking chair across from it. "Tell me."

"First, I have to ask how much you already know of this case, lady Barthomeloi." Waver replied, discretely looking around her office. Yes, he had been there before, but it was large and filled with all kinds of objects, so he probably would need several more visits to get a complete picture. "Are you aware of the mercenary that was recently traded to us by the Church?"

"I am aware of that." She answered with a nod. "I recall you left very shortly afterwards."

"I did." Waver confirmed. "The mercenary turned out to have been caught while doing a job for a group of Sealing Designees, which held Vincent Balefor in their ranks. This mercenary had been ordered to abduct a particular Magus for the Sealing Designees, in order to use her in their experiments."

The woman's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, which was entirely understandable. If Magi started abducting and attacking other Magi, then the Association would soon cease to exist.

"The Sealing Designees apparently had set up some kind of program, hypnotising criminals to abduct people for them to use in their experiments, by the hundreds. Kidnapping a Magus seems to have been the next step in that program."

"I recall Balefor speaking out more than once in favour of using such a program here." Lady Barthomeloi said ponderously. "It would seem he finally got his wish."

"The mercenary was caught in the act however, and eventually delivered here." Waver continued, not acknowledging her statement, knowing it hadn't been meant for him. "He immediately told us everything he knew upon discovering where he was, including the location of the Sealing Designees."

"So you went there and arrested them." Barthomeloi guessed. "You seem to have gotten lucky with that, but I can't disagree with the results. Good work then, lord El-Melloi."

"It was actually more complicated than that." Waver admitted, not about to conceal the truth from her. After all, Fujimaru had expressed a desire to study at the Clocktower, and already being in a positive light to the Queen could only help him.

It was certainly better than Waver lying now and Barthomeloi discovering the real story later. That would be a disaster.

"Oh?" Barthomeloi lifted an eyebrow. "What truly happened then?"

"We successfully located the castle the Magi were supposed to be hiding in. The defences had been breached, all of them, and the Workshops burned to ash. Of the Magi themselves, there was no trace, while it was clear several battles had taken place inside."

"Someone beat you to it?" Barthomeloi asked, a glint of annoyance, killing intent, and… sympathy? in her eyes. "Then how is it that you have all five of the Magi with you now?"

"When Enforcer McRemitz and I entered the castle, we tripped an alarm that the one before us had left for the Magi's associates. He returned to the castle immediately and found us searching the place for clues. He confronted us and, after a short battle, we managed to figure out that we were working towards the same goal. He agreed to turn the Magi over to us."

"I see." She nodded. "What did he demand in return?"

"A favour from myself, a sponsorship to enter the Clocktower and a small part of the Magi's bounties." Waver summarised. "He seemed pleased enough to receive only these."

"Will he be coming to the Clocktower soon?" Barthomeloi sat up straighter, her eyes now boring into his. "I would like to meet him myself."

Waver froze ever so slightly, allowing him to feel the shivers working their way up his spine as a cold numbness started spreading throughout his body.

She wanted to meet Fujimaru? Already? After she had only heard about him once?

Sure, he had been aiming to give her a positive impression of the boy, but she had bitten into the bait far too viciously, and now he would have to be very careful to make sure his hook wouldn't be crushed in her jaws.

He could imagine what her game was here. Someone able to match Bazett Fraga McRemitz was not someone to take lightly, and he wouldn't be surprised at all if she was aiming to see if Fujimaru was worth poaching.

"He alluded to having several matters to take care of before he could, but he indicated that was his plan."

"Good. When he arrives, I shall send for him. See to it that he knows to come." She ordered sternly, eliciting a nod from him. "The rest of this case I'll read for myself in the report. Unless you have anything of note to add about your mysterious Magus you are dismissed."

Rising from his seat, Waver gave a small bow, before leaving the office to return to his tasks.

As he reached for the door handle however, he paused, clearing his throat.

"There is one other thing about him." He then said, turning around slightly to make eye-contact with Barthomeloi again.

"He would have done it all for free, no matter who I was or what was at stake for him."

Without saying anything else, ignoring the ever-so-slightly shocked look on her face, Waver walked out of the door.

He had already expected Barthomeloi to give this case at least a second glance, considering the trouble Balefor had caused her even before he became a Sealing Designee, but to actually take him to her office to hear him out was far more than anticipated.

It was a relief she had been so calm throughout it all, yet he still couldn't help but feel nervous for Fujimaru. The direct attention of the Queen was a risky thing to have and could very well end in disaster if he didn't meet her standards.

He would do his best to support the boy of course, and he could only hope that would be enough.

* * *

Kotomine Kirei was sitting in his personal chamber, calmly reading 'The Count of Monte Christo', after finishing his daily chores and entertaining the flock. To his great surprise, the number of attendants had actually been far higher than normal today, something about a 'pure essence' hanging around town over the last days, so his schedule had been fuller than he had anticipated.

But now he was done, and he could enjoy a calm evening. No one ever voluntarily visited him, especially not at this time, and Gilgamesh was still on his trip, so there shouldn't be anything to disturb his little bit of peace.

Not that he blamed people for not visiting him. He certainly wouldn't visit him if such a thing were even possible.

Pushing the melancholic thoughts to the back of his mind, Kirei went back to reading. He had been begrudgingly gifted the book by Rin as a birthday present, which he had only read because he had been dreadfully bored after the vigilante had moved on.

It was well beyond his expectations that he would be so drawn into the book to be late for his sermon on that day. The story of the Counts near mindless revenge and the thrill of watching him set up dominos to torture those who had wronged him one by one in the worst ways he could conceive had delighted him to no ends. He had even considered adopting some of the Counts methods in his own quests.

But of course, just as he had gotten comfortable in his chair, the sounds of the Church's doors being opened reached his room.

With a sigh, he rose from his chair again to receive the guest, half-considering to just kill them, but ultimately suppressing that urge. Losing his self-control like that would be so unsightly and, to use his dear apprentice's words, inelegant.

When he reached the main hall however, all thoughts of killing disappeared from his mind, and his eyebrows lifted in surprise.

When he had heard the doors opening, he had expected a lost soul in need of guidance, a believer looking for a lost possession, someone wishing for some kind of information, or maybe even Gilgamesh returning.

This visitor was none of those. She was one he had never expected to see in his Church for as long as he lived, as he had never thought her 'grandfather' would let her enter the holdfast of another Magus.

Especially Kirei's holdfast. Had the old man finally gone completely senile, or was this another attempt at manipulating his 'family' for nefarious purposes or dark amusement? Now that was an irksome though, not in the least because Zouken seemed to be thinking he could use Kirei for his own means.

Matou Sakura, in all of her purple glory, stood before him, her body tense and her eyes holding a determined look.

"Welcome, young one." He intoned as their eyes met, a carefully constructed kind smile on his face, though he did not manage to get his eyes to smile as well. "Why are you here in the Church at this hour? Are you perhaps in need of guidance?"

"Thank you for the offer, Kotomine-san, but I am not here for the Church or for you in your role as priest." She said politely, sounding as if she had rehearsed the words several times before coming here. "I-I am here to speak with you in your role as my fath- as Tohsaka Tokiomi's former apprentice."

Kirei's eyes widened even further when he heard that.

"Does your grandfather know you are here?" He countered her question, more to win himself some time than out of actual concern. "I can't very well let you be out if-"

"Grandfather is dead." Matou cut him off, sounding viciously happy about that. "I live with a friend now, and they know I am here."

For a moment, all Kirei could feel was grim satisfaction at the news. Then came regret, that he couldn't have been there to watch as Zouken's grip on his fake life slowly slipped, as his rotten face slowly warped into an image of despair, misery and horror. Like the monster that he claimed to be.

If Kirei were the Lords mistake and a trail for his servants, as he preferred to see himself as, then Zouken would be the filth beneath the devil's foot sent to destroy lambs and wolves alike.

This time, Kirei took greater care time to hide his surprise, though he did not fail to notice that Zouken was still referred to as 'grandfather', while Tokiomi got nothing but his name.

"Very well then, what is it that you wish to ask? I cannot guarantee I'll answer to your satisfaction, but I shall give it my best try."

The girl took a deep breath, clearly fighting off some lingering hesitation, before she took the leap of faith.

"Are you aware what Zouken did to me in the Matou-estate?" She asked. "What he put me through almost every day?"

"I am aware, yes." He nodded, closing his eyes in momentary regret about how happy he felt about that. "Absolutely horrible, and I am glad that man is finally dead. Was that why you came here? To hear that?"

"No, I have one more question." She said, closing her eyes and taking another deep breath. "Did he know?"

"…Come again?"

"Did he know?" She repeated, more bite entering her voice as she almost snapped at him. "Was he aware of what was going to happen?"

He frowned, still not understanding it, prompting the girl to repeat herself once more.

"Did. He. Know?!"

Kirei felt a twinge of annoyance at the vagueness of her questions. "Child, I don't have time to play the pronoun game with you. Either be more specific or leave."

"Did… Tohsaka Tokiomi… know what Zouken was going to do to me… after he gave me away like an unwanted piece of furniture?" Matou clarified, gritting her teeth as she forced the question out. "Did he know?"

…

Oh.

Oh!

' _Oh my.'_

Kirei felt the smile on his face grow and twist into something he had cursed and anguished over for every second of his life. He tried his very best to suppress it, but he was quite sure he utterly failed at doing so, though the girl didn't seem bothered by his expression. She probably had an idea already what the answer was going to be.

Who would have thought she'd come to him one day to ask such a question? He certainly didn't, that was certain. The irony was not lost on him though. The girl most likely didn't even know that he was the one who killed her father, mother and the one responsible for her 'uncle' dying a dogs death in the previous War. He had already sunk his claws into the elder sister and now the younger sister had come to him as well.

It was time to tell her a tale, the tale of his own friend and teacher…

"He…"

* * *

Shirou looked up from the closet he had been assembling in Sakura's room, though with little success, as his hands kept shaking and discharging lightning at the most inopportune of moments.

Sakura had been understanding, fortunately, when he had told her his powers would be acting slightly strange for a while. According to her it explained a lot about what had been happening around him lately, and besides, she had already suspected it to be the case.

He… had not told her of Warrior's Madness yet, but he was planning to. He simply didn't tell her because he didn't think she could have handled it that one morning after he had saved her, but he wasn't planning on hiding it or anything. That would be nonsensical.

So basically, everything seemed to be going quite well.

Nevertheless, Shirou had a very strange feeling in his gut, one that spoke of imminent trouble that was coming for him and those close to him.

It was very strange. He had done nothing over the last days but arranging Sakura's smooth transition to living with him, yet…

He had the feeling a lot had happened over the past days that he knew nothing about. Things connected to him. Things that would catch up to him one day.

Troublesome.

* * *

 **Done. That was another chapter with some important events in it. I know, it's a bit of a drag, but hold on for a few more chapters, we're almost moving on now.**

 **So, Shirou had no POV in this chapter, save for that last bit, simply because he had nothing happen to him. He's resting now, already having finished his task, while it is to everyone else now to react to his actions.**

 **Next chapter will focus a bit more of Shirou though, as well as Ayako, Rin and Sakura. Don't know how long that will take to write, but I'll try my very best. I'll probably also add one very short Shinji POV, simply to show what he's going to be up to.**

 **Also, discord. Here's the link: discord . gg / YaZvJJj**

 **As always, special thanks to** **Lich,** **liamrodhudson331** **and** **Woggie** **for checking the chapter.**

* * *

 **Omake:**

A direwolf, with blue fur as dark as the night sky and deep red eyes, watched silently as the mayhem happened down below. Three individuals fighting each other in a battle royal with knifes as their only weapons.

Truly, MidnightFenrir had no idea how things had spiralled into this mess but to see intelligent beings reduced to little more than beasts hungering for blood was... disconcerting, to say the least.

They had to be stopped. The only question was how. And while he knew Primate Murder-nii-san could do so without too much trouble, the aftermath might just be worse.

Hm... Decisions, decisions.

As he pondered the merits of calling back-up, he was startled as a being of mud formed right beside him.

The being smiled down at the direwolf, the malevolent glint in its eyes sending shivers down his spine, as the mud and dark energy that composed it started swirling faster and faster.

MidnightFenrir growled as his fight-or-flight instincts started to kick in. Whatever that thing was doing, he knew he was fast enough to-

'THUD'

A kitchen knife fell to the ground between the wolf and the being, the blade planting the cooking tool into the earth.

For a moment, all was silent as MidnightFenrir looked from the knife to the being several times, as if he was asking it what he was supposed to do with the knife.

Then, the being stretched a long tendril of mud to grasp the knife before raising it in the air...

"FETCH!"

And with that shout, Grail-Kun threw the knife.

Moved by his canine instincts, MidnightFenrir didn't hesitate for a second before bouncing after the knife and catching in his jaws by the handle.

However, direwolves can't fly. And so, with a confused whine, MidnightFenrir plummeted into the chaos bellow.

Grail-Kun laughed as yet another player was added to the game. The Great Knife War was well under way, but it always needed MORE participants.

"Tonight," Grail-Kun hummed merrily, "MidnightFenrir joins the Hunt!

* * *

 **Thanks to** **MidnightFenrir** **for the omake.**

 **Ted out.**


	21. Heavy Conversations

**Heavy conversations**

"So, what is it that you girls wanted to talk about?" Chiaki asked, teacup in hand and arms crossed expectantly as she looked at the girls sitting across from her.

It was the day after their witness statements had been taken at the police station, and so far, everything seemed to be going well.

The investigations into the arson were only a formality now, according to the officers involved, as no one had any reason to doubt Sakura's version of the event. All that remained was finding some evidence to back up her claims, and the case could be closed.

The support of several trustworthy people - including but not limited to a teacher, a young man whose tendency to help anyone had made him some kind of minor celebrity in town, an important businessman and of course the Mitsuzuri-family - was enough to give your statements a lot of weight.

Sakura had come over today to personally thank them and show her appreciation, and to hang around with Ayako for a bit.

Eventually, through a strange set of circumstances, Ayako, Chiaki and Sakura all ended up doing chores together, with the plum-haired girl actually surprising Chiaki with the ease with which she did the housework.

" _How did you learn to do all of this so well?"_ Chiaki had asked her, to which she had received a shy smile from Sakura.

" _Senpai and I always do housework together."_ The reply had been spoken softly. _"I sort of wanted to help him, back when we just met, so I asked him to teach me."_

After they had finished the chores however, the girls had suddenly pulled her aside and asked if they could talk to her, or to be more specific, if they could ask her a question.

Not seeing any reason to refuse, Chiaki had made tea and then sat them all down at the table, before asking the girls what they wanted to talk about.

" _This might take a while though."_ She thought, teacup in hand, as the girls suddenly seemed very hesitant and unsure of where to start the conversation, if the shifty looks, the constant tapping of fingers and the way Ayako clung to Sakura for support were any indication.

Her daughter had been almost inseparable from Sakura ever since it was discovered that she was very much alive and did in fact not die in the house fire as they initially believed. She had only reluctantly relinquished her hold on the girl once they absolutely had to part ways following their statements to the police.

Chiaki wasn't sure whether to smile or to sigh as she looked back on past events.

It was clear that the shock of her friend's presumed death had been traumatising for Ayako, so her reluctance to separate was entirely understandable.

After they had given their statements and had gone their separate ways, well, Ayako hadn't said anything, but from the way she had been staring at her phone for the rest of the day, Chiaki could easily guess her daughter was still very worried about her friend.

Nevertheless, it could not be denied that the mood in the Mitsuzuri-household was positively joyous. Ayako couldn't keep a grin off her face for the entire day, while Chiaki and Ryozo were only marginally more restrained. They had been seconds away from throwing a party, and only the lack of means and materials, as well as the absence of the party's guest of honour stopped them from doing so.

Ultimately, it was decided that they'd push the party to a later date, and get Shirou involved for his input.

Minori, who had missed all of the excitement, was ecstatic about Sakura's survival once he heard the news. He even tried to run over to Shirou's residence to check up on her, but Chiaki and Ryozo put a stop to that, as Sakura was too tired, both physically and emotionally, to receive guests at the moment.

It wasn't necessarily true, but both adults felt the little white lie was acceptable in this situation. Sakura didn't need people fighting in her presence now, even more so if the fight would likely be about her.

Their refusal hadn't gone over well with their son though, and the news that Sakura was now living with Shirou even less so. It would appear she'd been far too optimistic to hope that her son's self-proclaimed rivalry with Shirou would pass quietly on its own.

All that useless jealousy for a girl who had already made her choice.

Chiaki knew about Minori's crush. It was completely understandable and acceptable for an adolescent boy, but she also knew that his chances with Sakura were close to non-existent.

Still, knowing her son, he was very unlikely to give up without a fight. The most she could do was to prepare for the aftermath as well as she could. She just hoped her efforts would prove sufficient.

" _Now isn't the time to get lost in thought though."_ Chiaki chided herself once she realised they had been sitting in silence for a while. _"The girls wanted to talk._ "

"Well, let's get started. What did you want to talk about?" She asked directly.

"Uhm, well, I guess we need some advice." Ayako began with some hesitation, her hands wringing as she spoke and her eyes looking everywhere but her mother. "And you're the only one we know who can help us with… t-this."

"Oh? And what about your father? Or Shirou? Perhaps a teacher or another friend?" Chiaki hedged, partially teasing, but also curious as to why she was apparently the only help available. "Wouldn't they be able to help you as well?"

"None of the teachers are close enough to us, our friends won't know anything more than we do, perhaps even less, dad is… well, a man and Shirou is actually a part of the problem." Ayako replied promptly, with Sakura nodding beside her. "You're our only hope, mom."

So Shirou was part of the problem. That made deducing the cause of this conversation much easier, considering the girls' infatuation with him.

Chiaki's mood darkened slightly as she realised that they were probably intending to ask her for romantic advice.

She had known this day would come at some point, when the girls would approach her as the only older woman they could rely upon for such advice, but she had hoped that it would be far, far away. Like, well-into-adulthood far.

It wasn't that she minded them asking for love advice, nor did she disapprove of the person they were asking about. What was problematic was that they were both here, together, meaning they _both_ had romantic feelings for Shirou.

Granted, it had been clear for months now that they both liked him, but it wasn't good if they would now clash over who the boy should pick. The girls had become very good friends, and to have them split over Shirou would be a tragedy.

Chiaki feared she might even be asked to determine which of the two would get to pursue Shirou and who would have to back off. Oh God, she hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Chiaki had known that it was inevitable that her children would one day come to her for advice on romance, but she had expected it to be about how to ask someone out and maintain a good relationship, or how to get over heartbreak and disappointment.

Never had she expected that she would have to give advice about how to untangle a web of drama, pain and confusion!

She couldn't make that choice, she simply couldn't. One of them was her real daughter, and the other was someone she was starting to see as her daughter in all but blood. How could she ever be expected to choose between them?

"I see," Chiaki eventually said, carefully keeping her emotions hidden behind a poker face. "Then I suppose I would indeed be the only choice left. What kind of advice do you want?"

Damn, that came out way too harshly, and now they were looking at her with clear concern in their eyes. She had to smile, _smile dammit_.

With great effort, she managed to put a smile on her face. It was a brittle thing, but it seemed enough for the girls, who were noticeably set at ease at the sight.

"Ah, I-I guess it's r-romance-related, s-so I think it would be love advice." Sakura whispered in response to Chiaki's question, her face completely red. Not that Ayako fared any better at the moment. "We, we just wanted to ask you about relationships, and when you b-both like the same p-person."

The pit in Chiaki's stomach widened with every word that was spoken. Her gaze flitted between the two girls, judging and weighing, trying to determine who she would pick in case she absolutely had to choose.

They both liked him, yes, and they both seemed genuine. They had both known him for too long now for it to be a simple and temporary crush. That meant choosing based on which one held the more serious feelings was not an option. Comparing the girls by some kind of arbitrary definition of worth wasn't something she was willing to do, because that was frankly nonsense. Unfortunately, that left her with very little to make the choice with. Trying to compare people like that was extremely hard to do, either objectively or subjectively.

Could she even make that choice…

No, Chiaki firmly decided. She couldn't _-wouldn't-_ make such a decision, not when it forced her to choose between her girls. If that disappointed them, too bad. They shouldn't have presented her with such a dilemma in the first place.

The tension was quickly becoming unbearable though. The girls were about to present the crux of the matter to her, she could see it in their eyes, but she wasn't in any way ready.

Could she get away with suggesting that they share Shirou between them? Was that an option? She would take it if possible.

"S-So we just wanted to ask how we can make it clear to Shirou that we like him!" Ayako then almost yelled, interrupting Chiaki's thoughts. Her daughter's face impossibly reddened even more, until both she and Sakura resembled tomatoes. "A-And how we could maintain a proper relationship between the three of us."

…

Oh…

 _'That was easy.'_ She blinked to herself in stunned disbelief. Should she perhaps also wish for a bag of gold and a lightsaber while she was at it?

Chiaki didn't respond for a while, her mind abuzz with more emotions and thoughts than she could keep track of. It went without saying that she was shocked, though she was willing to admit she had partially brought this on herself, tempting fate and all that.

The girls had decided to share Shirou, which… was honestly so very cute! Choosing not to compromise on their friendship over a boy, but instead opting to take the difficult route of sharing him between them.

With everything that had happened recently, this was a relief to hear. She hadn't been looking forward to that possible confrontation at all.

This… this little play at a relationship however brought its own set of problems. It would work perfectly well as long as they were young and innocent, but unfortunately, they would find out soon enough that the world wasn't very accepting of things out of the norm like that, even if maintaining such a relationship was possible.

Chiaki wasn't going to tell them off about their plan, but she knew society wouldn't take kindly to it. This could lead to dire consequences if they weren't careful, given that it wouldn't exactly be seen in a… pleasant light, by the majority of their neighbours, acquaintances and basically everyone else.

On the other hand, perhaps it was for the best to let them share Shirou for now, and let them postpone the need to decide until a time where the two of them weren't freshly traumatised.

Chiaki was pretty sure she could think of a _real_ solution given time, and as long as the relationship remained innocent and healthy, she could play along for now.

Honestly, it was adorable how they were acting, full of friendship and everything, neither willing to disappoint the other, and even going as far as to pursue an option like this.

And with such serious faces too...

"So, if I understand this correctly, you intend to share him between the two of you?" Chiaki asked, holding a hand in front of her mouth to hide her large grin. "Willingly?"

"Y-Yes, i-if Shirou also agrees with that." Ayako nodded, before continuing in a determined tone. "Sakura and I already talked it over."

Huh, she sounded incredibly resolute there, much more than Chiaki had expected. There was none of the hesitation she had expected, and… was it just her or had their expressions always held such a note of utter commitment and devotion?

Certainly, it wasn't possible that they were serious about this.

Right?

Realising she had been silent for too long and had created an awkward silence in the middle of their conversation, Chiaki made a snap decision.

"Good." She smiled, making both girls blink in surprise. "I almost feared you would ask me to choose which of you was allowed to get into a relationship with Emiya-kun."

"What!? NO!" Ayako protested, tightening her hold on Sakura. It only made it more obvious they were too attached to each other due to recent events to consider the matter seriously. Sakura nodded in agreement again, both having slightly repulsed and thoroughly shocked expressions on their faces. "We wouldn't do that to you, that would be cruel, a-and anyways, Shirou should also get a say in this."

"I guess that's true." Chiaki nodded, deciding to just play along for now and possibly have some fun with them while giving her 'advice'. She gave them a smile, a genuine, if playful one. "I'm sorry for doubting you, my dears. Now, you wanted advice on how to ask Shirou-kun on a date?"

"W-Well, mainly on how we can make it clear to him that we like him." Sakura corrected her meekly while playing with her fingers. "He never seems to realise when we try to hint at it, so making things clear is what we need the most help with. D-Dates can come after that."

"I suppose he wouldn't understand such a thing easily." Chiaki sighed, pondering deeply on what to tell the girls.

…Perhaps some of Minori's manga could help here? She had read a few, and she was almost certain harems had come up more than once. What was it again that characterised those so-called harem-protagonists?

Ah yes, their 'density', a tragic backstory, and all those other things designed to fuel cheap melodrama. She fought to keep the smirk from her face, instead putting on a solemn mask as she poked a little fun at her charges.

"It isn't surprising that he doesn't notice," she declared, affecting a sad and somewhat dramatic tone. "With that horrible event in his youth, scarring him for life. Why, it's very likely he does in fact notice, but refuses to acknowledge it as a possibility because he believes he deserves no love out of guilt for what had happened."

"What?" Sakura half-yelled, eyes wide in shock, seemingly taking Chiaki completely seriously.

"I second that 'what'," Ayako added, equally surprised at her mother's words, yet far more sceptical of them than her friend.

That is, until Sakura leaned over slightly to whisper something in Ayako's ear. Chiaki couldn't hear what was said, but judging from Ayako's shocked expression, followed by the look of immense respect her daughter gave her, Sakura had somehow managed to convince the girl that Chiaki was correct.

More evidence that they were living in a fantasy world, if they were actually believing this nonsense.

"Well, think about it. Shirou obviously feels and thinks differently from us," Chiaki went on, making it up as she remembered more and more about those manga. "In his subconscious mind, he is partially to blame for the tragedy, even though intellectually he perhaps knows that such a thing is nonsense."

"Senpai didn't nothing wrong!" Sakura whispered sadly but firmly while looking down at her hands, prompting a melancholic Ayako to start rubbing her back in small circles. "But I think I know what you mean."

"It's nothing less than a tragedy." Chiaki sighed, idly wondering just how far she could take this. "I think, though this is just a theory, that as a result of his guilt complex, among other things that I cannot even imagine, Shirou simply cannot accept that anyone would ever love him. Like him as a convenient friend perhaps, but love him and value him for who he is? Never."

"That's nonsense." Ayako blurted out, her hands clenched so tightly her knuckles became white. "Why wouldn't we love him? He's amazing."

"He is excellent boyfriend material indeed." Chiaki allowed, knowing that, even in all seriousness, if there was anyone who'd do right by multiple girls… Shoving that from her mind, she gave the girls a salacious grin. She would stir the pot a little, and perhaps prompt the girls to think about the situation in more adult terms "He's kind, driven, motivated, intelligent, considerate of others, helpful and, most importantly, also very _yummy_. Do tell me how he is in bed after you try it."

"M-M-MOM!" Ayako cried, scandalised, while Sakura have a small 'eep' as she hid her face behind her hands to escape the woman's teasing stare.

She cackled in glee.

Just as planned.

Nevertheless, she should throw in some actual advice too. She'd had her laughs, but it was important that her girls didn't get the wrong idea. It would be cruel to let them walk away with an incorrect impression, not to mention they might never forgive her.

"But, in all seriousness," she continued, holding up a hand to stave off the outraged rebuttals that were sure to follow her words. "You need to hit Shirou around the head with the facts, hard. My best advice is to sit down at a table, the three of you together, and just tell him how you feel. Say what's on your mind, make it clear that you two like him, and then let him decide what he wants."

"That's all?" Ayako asked dubiously, Sakura looking up next to her with a slightly puzzled expression. "I-I'm not saying I know better, but shouldn't it be… more romantic or something?"

"Like what? Telling him you love him when he lies on the ground with his stomach slashed open, knowing you'll never get another chance? Perhaps when he's about to fight some great enemy and needs motivation? Or when he is about to go off on a deadly quest and you need something to tie him down with? Girls, real life often isn't as romantic or dramatic as films and tv-shows make it seem."

The girls blinked at her words, making Chiaki sigh deeply.

"Look girls, I understand that just calmly telling him might seem a little underwhelming, but in my experience, it is by far the best option, at least out of those he would notice. Just the three of you, no rush, no drama, no potential enemies around and all the time in the world to discuss your feelings. Believe me, it works far better than doing a hurried confession during incredibly an stressful moment and it makes for far less drama too."

"B-But, what if Senpai laughs at us? Or what if h-he's embarrassed by us and doesn't want to know us anymore? W-What if we come at a bad time?" Sakura rambled as she tugged nervously on her sleeves, her eyes half-wide with panic.

Chiaki tried not to raise an eyebrow. Just what kind of opinion did the girl have of Shirou?

"One, Shirou isn't a sociopath or an easily embarrassed child. He's not going to laugh at you, nor expel you from his life for embarrassing him, _if_ he would even consider it embarrassing in the first place." Chiaki scoffed, flicking a hand in a dismissive motion. "Two, what do you mean 'a bad time'? Shirou isn't a Shonen-protagonist, he doesn't need your love-confession as some kind of character-development later on in the story. There's nothing wrong with telling him right away."

Smiling softly, Chiaki leaned forward and grabbed a hand of each of the girls. "Just sit him down at a table, lean forward to grab his hand like I am doing with you now, and confess. If he feels the same, which I find very likely, and he accepts your offer, which I deem equally likely once you get your feelings through, follow that up by kissing him silly."

And again both girls' faces exploded with red, as Ayako started stuttering denials and Sakura seemed to suffer a critical meltdown.

Laughing merrily at their reactions again, Chiaki released their hands and sat back, idly tapping on the table with her fingers. From the girls' dreamy expressions, they didn't seem all that averse to her suggestion.

"Just do what I told you and it should all work out," she continued after a few seconds, nodding sagely as the girls came back from wherever their minds had wandered off to.

Fortunately, they were both taking her suggestion seriously. Ayako seemed to be thinking it over, if her ponderous expression was anything to do by, while Sakura had a glazed look in her eyes and a contented smile on her face.

"I-I see," Ayako mumbled eventually, sitting up straighter. "Thanks mom, we'll give it a try."

"We really should," Sakura agreed, her voice steady and filled with purpose now that she knew what to do. "No time to lose, we are already months behind schedule."

"Unforgivable! Let's do this as soon as possible. When is our next free day?"

Chiaki smiled contently as the girls hyped each other up. If they kept that spirit alive, there was no doubt they'd succeed in getting themselves their boyfriend soon. Meanwhile, she would try to think up a real solution, something that would bring them all happiness in the long run.

Still, there was one thing that still needed to be said, and the girls really needed to listen to this.

"Do remember to use protection if you're going to take it further than just kissing." Chiaki said sternly, being completely serious this time. "I mean it, this is no joke or anything. You are too young to be parents and I'm too young to be a grandparent. I don't want to hear of any pregnancies yet, okay?"

…

"MOM!"

"EEP!"

* * *

Shirou could only sigh as he looked over the papers detailing the overall defences of the Einzbern castle yet again, using his newly gained books about Runes and Bounded Fields, formerly belonging to the Matou-family, to try and find any possible weak spots that he may have missed before.

He was acting from a room that he had changed into his personal command centre. Not his workshop, which was located in the shed, but a room in which he could plan his operations and go over collected data. He had of course extensively warded the room, as every piece of sensitive information and every secret he had written on paper was in there.

…Almost like a Magus.

It went to show just how big his house was that he could use a room for such a purpose, have his own room and a guestroom, and then yet another room that now belonged to Sakura. That room was a little empty at the moment, but they had made plans together to furnish and decorate it properly.

At least that was going well, unlike the plan he was currently trying to put together.

The materials he had obtained from the Matou-estate had mostly been useless to him, yet there were a few about Bounded Fields that could prove useful, if only to find flaws in the Einzbern's defences.

No such luck however. Even with the new information on hand, the Einzbern Bounded Fields seemed as perfect and daunting as ever, which made getting in unnoticed a difficult task, to say the least.

It wasn't that it was impossible for him to save Illya. If anything, his new abilities should grant him more than enough power to simply force his way inside the Einzbern castle. No, the issue was getting back out with Illya in tow and keeping her safe from their pursuers, both the immediate ones and those that would follow later. T _hat_ would be an issue, just as it had been the previous times he had tried to make plans for freeing her.

He wanted to give his sister a better life, not one where they would have to stay on the run for the rest of their lives.

So no, if he was going to save Illya, he wasn't going to rush in without a plan. He was going to do it right the first time around, and either destroy all traces of… well, basically everything, or make it so that the Einzbern wouldn't even think of trying to pursue them.

Preparation would be key to that, and to prepare sufficiently, he would have to collect more information on the Einzbern themselves. Unfortunately, even though he had hired several bounty-hunters already, none of them had been able to bring him anything of note. He simply didn't have a source of information.

The invitation he had gotten from lord El-Melloi had changed all that. Now that he could attend the Clocktower whenever he wanted and in a completely legal and logically explainable way, a lot of doors had suddenly been opened for him.

The summer holidays were approaching, leaving him with months of free time. Plenty to attend a few courses in the Clocktower under Lord El-Melloi, though honestly, Shirou didn't expect to really learn all that much. He was still a third-rate Magus after all, one that had no particular desire to rise in status. Those courses and lessons would merely be a ruse. He wasn't interested in anything the Clocktower could offer him outside of some information. It was all to get closer to the Einzbern.

He would have a much greater chance at getting close to their castle as a student in the Clocktower than as a tourist from Japan, that was certain. Not to mention it would cast a lot less suspicion on him in general if he had a legitimate reason to be there.

It might just present him with a window of opportunity he could use. Of course, there was still no guarantee that he would succeed, that was just a hope he held, that his visit to the Clocktower wouldn't be for naught. There was no way to find out now though, so all he could currently do was get stronger, prepare better, study more and just generally try to be more competent.

There was nothing he could do right now, so he might as well put the books away and go cook dinner. He stretched himself to rise and grunted as arcs of pain shot through his body, lightning sparking off him as he loosened his muscles.

The effects of Warrior's Madness were unfortunately still very noticeable, mainly in those little instances where he would temporarily lose control over his power, as well as the screaming protest of his body whenever he tried to do something strenuous.

He had played it off to Sakura whenever it happened in front of her, but he suspected she wasn't fooled in the slightest.

Sakura wasn't present right now however, so Shirou felt free to stretch and groan out loud without fear of being overheard.

The symptoms were getting milder though, which eased most of his worries. He had a lot planned for the coming weeks, and he wanted to be at his best for it all. Not to mention he still owed Sakura a demonstration of his new powers, during which he could hardly be groaning in pain all the time.

Speaking about Sakura, the girl had taken to her new life incredibly well, he noted. She had moved in without issues, and seemed more than ready to do her share of the work, even though he had told her multiple times it was not necessary. He was still a little surprised with how seamlessly she had integrated herself into his life.

It probably had something to do with the fact she had been practically living at his house for years already. The only thing that had really changed was that she now had a key, access to his bank-accounts and her own official bedroom.

And, of course, she now knew about his other life. Which was why he was so much more relaxed in her presence now, especially since she had taken it so well.

She really was a fantastic person, and he should really tell her that more often.

He would have told her right this moment, but she was at Ayako's place now. She had assured him she would be back in time for dinner, though possibly not in time to help with preparing it.

Seeing that it was getting late already, Shirou decided to just get started. He'd see when she made it back home.

It was… nice, to think of the house not just as his, but theirs.

* * *

Sakura watched in awe as her Senpai blew apart another boulder with a lightning bolt he oh-so casually called forth with his hammer in hand, seemingly without any effort, incantation or strain on his part.

The sun had already set, and Fuyuki-City was slowly falling asleep after a long day, yet Sakura felt incredibly awake at the moment, watching Shirou demonstrate his power in incredible spectacles, his immense aura sending pleasant tingles down her spine.

It had only been a few hours since she had dinner, and Sakura was slightly disappointed that she hadn't been able to help prepare it. She had only made it home the exact moment Senpai finished setting the table, at the same time as Fujimura-Sensei.

It was a pity that she had missed the cooking, but there would be plenty of chances in the future. After all, she now lived with Senpai, actually lived in his house, something she still scarcely believed, so preparing meals with him was going to be a daily occurrence.

Actually, it had already been almost a daily occurrence for years now, even when she still lived with Gran- Zouken, but somehow, living together with her Senpai made everything better.

Besides, even though she didn't like arriving late, it wasn't as if she hadn't made productive use of that time. She and Ayako had been talking with Mitsuzuri-san, who, in spite of all the teasing, readily gave them a lot of advice on relationships and romance in general. ' _A-And on Senpai specifically.'_ She thought as a faint blush rose to her cheeks.

Sakura was honestly surprised by how okay Ayako's mother was with them pursuing Shirou together. She had expected Chiaki to be against it, or judge them in some way, as polyamorous relationships were hardly common in Japan, much less tolerated, but the woman had been naught but helpful, even encouraging them to, as she put it, 'go and have fun'.

According to Chiaki-san, it was a whole lot better than the alternative, where they would have to compete with each other over Shirou, most likely ruining their friendship in the process.

Sakura wholeheartedly disagreed. If it had come to that, she would have backed off immediately. She really didn't want to lose Ayako's friendship, and besides, Senpai would be better off with Ayako anyway.

She didn't deserve either of them, but she would fight to the death to keep both of them.

Chiaki had then continued by expressing her relief about not being asked to choose who of the two would get to pursue Shirou and who would have to give up. That was not a choice she wanted to make apparently.

Although Sakura herself couldn't quite see the problem with that. Obviously, she should have chosen Ayako. The brunette was better than Sakura in every way, and she was certain everyone could see that too.

Purer, kinder, more self-assertive, prettier, everything. Not to mention her daughter by blood, where Sakura sometimes still felt like an interloper in the sunlight world of ordinary people. The choice should have been an easy one, but apparently, against all of her expectations, Chiaki didn't see it that way.

Sakura still didn't know what to think of that, but she couldn't deny the warmth in her stomach that the woman considered her Ayako's equal, as unreal as that sounded.

When the woman had finally gotten around to actually giving advice, she was actually a great help, though Sakura's face still reddened whenever she recalled what the woman had told them to do.

Just sit Senpai down at a table with her and Ayako, grab his hands, look him deep in the eyes, tell them their feelings outright, and let him choose what to do with their words, before k-k-kissing him should he accept.

She still wasn't sure if she had the courage to do that, it would be so embarrassing.

She supposed she was fortunate she had Ayako with her for support, or she probably would have sat in nervous silence the entire time. No way she could have taken such a step on her own.

After giving them advice, Mitsuzuri-san immediately resumed teasing them, their confessions of having romantic feelings for Shirou only gave the woman more ammunition to use in her quest to embarrass them as much as possible.

Sakura's blush indeed intensified as she recalled the woman offering to teach them a few simple tricks to use in bed, as well as urging them to find Shirou's kinks so that they could use them against him.

That was shocking enough, but it was only when the woman suggested that she teach Shirou a bit as well that Sakura started feeling very light-headed.

It was very difficult to look Shirou in the eye after that, an atomic blush appearing on her cheeks every time she tried, as she remembered that scandalous offer.

Now all that was left was to find a good time to confess, but that would have to wait. Sakura and Shirou still had to tell Ayako about Magecraft, because as Chiaki said, a relationship built on lies would never last.

So first they would tell her about the Moonlit World, wait a few days for her to process everything, and only then could they start their planning out their confession and relationship dynamics.

That had pretty much concluded their discussion, and Sakura returned home afterwards, but that was not to say her mind had also moved on.

She hadn't been able to think of anything but that discussion during dinner, making it a difficult affair to properly talk without stuttering and blushing. Somehow though, she had actually managed to make it to the end of the meal.

Fujimura-sensei had then left again with a wink and a crushing hug, and after they had cleaned the table and the kitchen, Senpai had asked her if she still wanted to see a demonstration of his powers.

She had immediately agreed of course, and thus Senpai led her to his backyard, before lifting her up in a princess-carry and taking off into the sky.

It was a surreal experience, and, after the initial screaming in fear, she had really come to enjoy it too. There was a real thrill in flying through the sky, with the wind caressing her hair, held safely in the arms of her Senpai as they soared above the city at incredible speeds.

Well, not really incredible, they weren't going much faster than an average Olympic sprinter, as going faster would have put too much strain on her body, at least according to Senpai. But for her, it had still felt like they were going faster than lightning.

It could have lasted hours upon hours and Sakura would not have grown bored with it, but far too soon, they had arrived at their destination, a large clearing in the forest next to Fuyuki-City. Senpai, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly, had told her this was where he usually practiced Magecraft.

He had already placed several Runic Arrays over the field and in the forest surrounding it, so that no one would notice them using Magecraft here. That was honestly a relief. They didn't need to be found by certain overly curious and meddlesome people.

No way she wanted to talk with…

She took a deep, shuddering breath, forcefully expelling the thoughts of that person from her mind. She was here to watch Senpai's training, not to get lost in memories, especially ones that would only spoil her mood.

She focused on the sight in front of her again, just in time to see Senpai throw Mjolnir at the rock-formation in the centre of the clearing. She watched intently, curious as to what the Divine weapon could do when thrown so casually.

It didn't disappoint.

The hammer obliterated everything in its path without slowing down in the slightest, but that wasn't even the most impressive about it. The weapon had _curved_ mid-flight, and then seamlessly returned to her Senpai's hand, handle first and all.

She had felt nothing during the return, no bending of reality, no burst of Magical Energy that would suggest a summoning spell, no manipulation of the rules of nature or anything. The hammer just returned, as if it had somehow decided that it wanted to… and apparently the natural laws of reality agreed.

Right, Senpai already said it was sentient, hadn't he?

Shirou then shot her a grin, as if having heard her thoughts, before drawing a Rune in the air. It wasn't one Sakura recognised, but the immense burst of fire that sprang forth revealed its nature just fine.

It was amazing to see. Even standing several dozen yards away, she could feel the scorching heat from the enormous cone of fire. Senpai let the flames burn for a while, before willing them away.

He then did several other things, like crushing a rock with his bare hands, drawing several more Runes, flying at incredible speeds, and, to her shock, wounding himself to show her how fast he could heal.

That was where she drew a hard line.

"Senpai!" She hissed loudly, startling her hopefully-soon-to-be boyfriend, who was just about to continue his demonstration by holding out one of his hands over a roaring flame held in the other palm.

"Ah? What is it?" He asked in surprise as she marched over to him and took hold of the hand that he had cut, disrupting the fire and making it sizzle out as she forcefully pulled the appendage close to her face.

"You shouldn't hurt yourself, especially not for some stupid demonstration," she scolded him as she examined the hand closely, noting to her relief there were no signs of injury. "I just asked for a small showing of what you could do. There was no need to hurt yourself for my amusement."

"It was just a little cut, I barely felt it." Shirou protested half-heartedly. "You don't have to worry, I'll be fine. Cuts like that don't mean much to me anymore."

Sakura blinked once, before her heart sank at his casual disregard of his own well-being. Yes, she knew that he would be fine, that he could heal, but that wasn't the point here. He still felt pain, didn't he? He shouldn't be that casual about inflicting pain on himself. Couldn't he see that by hurting himself he hurt his loved ones? He might believe he deserved no better, and that he didn't matter, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

"But I do worry." She said, looking him deep into his eyes, trying to convey her feelings as well as she could. "I hate it when you are hurt, and I know that others do too. Ayako, Fujimura-Sensei, Chiaki-san and Ryozo-san, we all feel the same way."

She then promptly hugged him, feeling his arms encompassing her trembling frame in return. "Please do not hurt yourself anymore, Senpai. If not for yourself, then do it for us. We cannot bear to see you in pain, you don't deserve pain. I'm begging you, just try to take better care of yourself."

Shirou stiffened in her hold, and she could almost hear the gears in his head turning. After a few seconds, he breathed out deeply, seemingly coming to a decision.

"I won't hurt myself needlessly," he mumbled. "But I will do what I have to in order to save people, you know that."

"Yes, but at least promise me you'll avoid getting hurt as much as possible."

"I promise."

"Thank you."

Sakura gritted her teeth slightly as she came to a conclusion. Her Senpai might have problems with his self-worth, and he might be fine with that, but she sure as hell wasn't. If he wasn't going to look out for himself, she'd do so in his stead, just like he did for her.

Two people, both broken in so many ways, looking out for each other because neither could take proper care of themselves.

She would have laughed at the irony if it weren't so tragic.

"It was a very impressive demonstration." She said after a pause, letting awe push away her lingering concern. "Was it tiring though? Do you need rest?"

"Not at all." Shirou assured her, a very, very slight touch of pride entering his voice. "I still have more than enough power in my reserves to do this and more, much more."

She nodded before turning back to look at the clearing. Despite what one might have expected, it bore barely any traces from the violence that had just been unleashed upon it.

It was a really pretty place now that she properly looked upon it. Soft green grass and pretty flowers swayed with the wind, while the curiously shaped and half-destroyed rock-formation in the middle gave it a mysterious presence. The small pond at the edge of the clearing reflected the moonlight clearly, casting a silvery glow over the scene.

All in all, a beautiful clearing in a beautiful forest.

She wouldn't mind visiting this place more often, and not necessarily for training either. It seemed like a good place for a picnic or something.

Maybe, if things with Ayako and Senpai went well, they could go here for their first dat-

"Oh gosh, look at the time." She blurted out before her mind went too far. "We'd better return, Senpai, you have school and work tomorrow, and I need to decorate and set my room up and everything."

Shirou blinked, before he nodded. Then, with a smile, he wrapped his arm around her waist, gentle as ever, and took off.

It felt as amazing as she remembered, if not better this time, and Sakura was quite sure the novelty of flying wouldn't wear off any time soon.

Romantic flights with Senpai. Perhaps it was something she could introduce to Ayako as well once everything was over and done with?

* * *

After putting on the show for Sakura, Shirou flew her straight back home, where she had gone to bed after an hour of idle conversation.

Once he was certain she was asleep, Shirou let himself fall backwards on the ground, groaning as lightning crackled over his entire body. He wasn't at the limit of his reserves, he could have pushed himself a lot further had it been necessary, but his muscles weren't exactly happy with him.

Fortunately, no lightning bolts were randomly flying from his fingers, as they used to the first few days after he had saved Sakura.

Sakura had looked very cute with her hair poofed up, but while she didn't seem to mind having it styled like that after he had told her so, it wasn't something that should be repeated. He needed to have better control than that.

He had good hopes though that it would be over soon enough. Then, all that was left to do was tell Sakura of Warrior's Madness, something he'd neglected to do until now, and the matter with Zouken could be closed forever.

After getting up again, he spent about an hour going over the Einzbern's defences again, furiously glaring at the papers and reports, as if trying to intimidate them into giving him a solution. But no matter how long he stared, nothing presented itself.

Frustrated at his lack of progress, he moved on to the next missions that he had planned. He might have finally taken down the Magi he had been hunting, but that didn't mean his work as Rakurai was over. There were still many criminals waiting to be captured, and Shirou was loath to let them run free and hurt more people any longer than strictly necessary.

Additionally, Ayako had informed him recently that Rakurai's absence was worrying a lot of his fans, including her. Shirou didn't care much for the opinion of his supposed fans, except maybe Ayako's, but it was a good indication that he had sat still for long enough, and that it was time to get back to fighting crime.

He had been looking through newspapers and the internet for rumours of high crime-rates or mysterious happenings that might require a visit from him, and he found several cities that fulfilled those requirements. Six of them, to be precise, all of them having clear problems that he could help with.

He would have to discuss it further with Sakura though. Getting second opinions was always a good thing, and Sakura was intelligent and quick of mind. She was sure to spot any mistakes he might have made and could probably give some valuable input herself.

It was the middle of the night however, and she was fast asleep, so he would have to save that discussion for a later date.

Shelving the matter of those cities for now, he spent the last hour of the night before he went to sleep on going over Osaki Koyo's profile. He had known already that Osaki was the one in charge of the investigation into Rakurai, courtesy of a hypnotised mayor who had told him that information, but he hadn't been able to look into the detective much. Nor had there seemed to be any need to, as the police hadn't even appeared on his radar yet, so Shirou had stayed away from violating the man's privacy.

Now that he had stumbled across the man inside Fuyuki however, the redhead had decided it was time to be a little more proactive. Nothing too invasive, merely a quick search through some files he had recently been able to liberate from the city's archive.

What he saw painted the picture of a hard-working and serious man, good at his job, dedicated to his family, and untouched by corruption. He was clearly competent too, having solved many cases his colleagues had previously written off as impossible.

All in all, a man Shirou would rather have in his corner than against him.

Too bad they stood on opposite sides of the law, without much chance of that changing. It was regrettable, but the detective had to uphold his duty, and Shirou could not and would not abandon his ideals.

Shirou also spared a moment to look over the file of Osaki's partner, one Yomaura Taya, though that name was almost certainly a fake one. It even said so in the file itself. No one really cared though, as the woman seemed a decent, upstanding person. As long as she didn't make any trouble, it was unlikely anyone would give her a hard time over her fake name.

Yomaura was pretty similar to her partner; dedicated, serious, efficient, upstanding and seemingly incorruptible. A real asset to the Law-Enforcement, an exemplary detective…

And her features looked incredibly similar to Bazett-san's.

Shirou studied the picture for a bit longer, taking note of the uncanny resemblance, before dismissing it from his mind. It was unlikely that they were related, and even if they were, he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.

With nothing more to do that night, he too decided to retire for bed.

* * *

Shirou woke up after four hours of sleep, a good hour longer than usual.

He had decided to take it easier, letting his body heal a bit more, and so far, it seemed to have worked out pretty well, if the absence of soreness in his muscles and the gentle thrum of his power were anything to go by.

Still, four hours was not much, and it was pretty early. Normal people would probably still be asleep, and he assumed Sakura would still be sleeping too.

Not having anything better to do, he went to the kitchen, intending to start cooking.

When he entered the kitchen though, he found himself face-to-face with a very much awake Sakura, who was already at work there, a bright, yet almost challenging smile on her face.

"Sakura." He sighed, grabbing some plates to set the table, knowing it would be a lost cause to try to get between the girl and the stove. "You could have waited for me."

Sakura merely shook her head. "You already cooked dinner yesterday, Senpai. Now that I live here, I should do my share of the chores."

Shirou opened his mouth to respond, but Sakura continued before he could.

"After all, if we are to live together, it is only natural that we divide the workload between us. Isn't that what marrie- I mean, housemates do? I won't be a freeloader here, Senpai."

Shirou noticed her little slip easily enough, and his heart beat a tiny bit faster for a moment, before he shoved it from his mind. It was probably just a joke between friends. Instead he nodded thoughtfully, surrendering to her superior logic. "I suppose you're right. Very well, I look forward to breakfast."

Sakura smiled happily, bringing the food to the table.

As if that was the exact sign she was waiting for, Taiga also chose that moment to burst through the door, announcing her presence with her usual volume and enthusiasm.

And as the three broke their fast together, none could deny the homey atmosphere hanging around the house.

Afterwards, Shirou and Taiga left for their respective schools, while Sakura stayed home to decorate her new room, and do some much needed shopping.

School itself was as unremarkable and boring as ever. It was a mean thing to think perhaps, but Shirou simply didn't care all that much for the rest of the year. All they were doing was repeating things they'd already learned for the final exams, and Shirou didn't need to do that.

He didn't have many friends around, so it wasn't like he came here for them. The other children still avoided him, perhaps because of his strange behaviour, perhaps because they genuinely felt something was off about him. He wouldn't be surprised if they did, he was not exactly normal, he knew that better than anyone.

Alas, he was still required to attend, even if it was starting to grind on his nerves. It was very uncharacteristic of him, but he just wished for the year to be over already, so that he could spend his time on more important matters.

Poor Sakura, she would be stuck at her middle-school for another year after this, while he and Ayako moved on. She still had Minori though, so it wasn't all bad, though Shirou wasn't sure if he liked the thought of Sakura interacting with the boy the entire time.

He would just have to make sure to be extra kind to her at home.

When school ended, he quickly made his way home. He still had his job at the Copenhagen to go to that evening.

"I'm home," he called out as he stepped through the door, putting away his coat and shoes before making his way over to the living room.

Sakura was sitting at the table reading the newspaper, most likely waiting for him to arrive so they could make dinner. Nothing strange there.

Yet he found himself frozen on the threshold of the room, watching the gentle flicker of her eyes as they scanned the page. He swallowed as something caught on the back of his mind, filling him with warmth and approval as he took in the sight of Sakura being at home, waiting for him to come back so they could spend the evening together.

He couldn't quite place the feeling though, nor could he find a reason why he felt so happy all of a sudden…

"Good afternoon, Senpai. Welcome back." Sakura called out, interrupting his contemplations. "I finished putting my room together some time ago, but it was still much too early for dinner. So I thought I'd read the paper while waiting for you. I hope that's okay?"

"You don't need my approval for something like that." Shirou said with a frown, surprised that she thought she needed permission for something so trivial. "You can do what you want, you know."

"Oh, r-right, I kinda forgot about that." Sakura mumbled, looking down shyly. "Shall we get started on dinner now? I know you have to go to work soon."

"Yes, let's," Shirou agreed, a smile replacing his frown, as he moved towards the kitchen, Sakura hot on his heels. "Fuji-nee did allude to being here early this evening."

Wearing their favourite aprons, the same ones they had gifted each other for their birthdays, the teens prepared the food and set the table, all the while anticipating the arrival of the tiger.

After a while, Shirou turned on the news to see if anything interesting had happened that day. He didn't get to watch it for long before Sakura grabbed his sleeve and wordlessly pulled him back into the kitchen with her.

Naturally, he offered no resistance. He did however catch the appearance of Terauchi Remon, a well-known crime-reporter, when her severe countenance took over the screen. When her prim and proper voice echoed through the living room, he and Sakura's both stopped to listen.

" _It was confirmed this morning that Kurata Shojiro, a long time criminal and member of the infamous Murakami gang was murdered in his cell."_ She said, motioning at the prison in her background. _"It is speculated that Kurata was murdered in retribution for his extensive cooperation with the police. In recent months, after his capture in one of the police's raids, Kurata had shown himself willing to aid the police in many of their endeavours, directly assisting in the capture of many other wanted people, as well as the disruption of much of the underworld's operations."_

Kurata Shojiro…

That name seemed awfully familiar to Shirou. He had heard it before somewhere, though he couldn't quite recall as to where and when that was.

Shirou was reasonably certain that it was him who had taken the man down on one of his missions in Fuyuki, but that couldn't be all. He wouldn't have recognised the name if he were merely yet another criminal he had taken down.

 _"Police speculate that the killing was retribution for Kurata's willingness to confess to his crimes and aid the authorities in their operations against his former associates. He was found in his cell with his throat cut. The other prisoners claim to be oblivious, though it is speculated they are being untruthful. The investigation is still on-going."_

The news then continued with an item about the protests in Europe against something or the other, but Shirou stopped paying attention at that point.

He shook his head slightly in disappointment, as the police had managed to mess things up yet again. To put one of their informants in the same cellblock as other criminals, who had every reason to want him dead. That seemed… unwise at best and actively malicious at worst.

There wasn't really anything he could do about it though, so he put it out of his mind. Sakura had already been giving him worried looks, and Taiga would probably arrive soon.

True to form, Taiga walked in the moment that the last dish was put on the table, even though they had finished significantly earlier than normal. It was scary how accurate she was when it came to food.

"Hey, you guys," she shouted as she barged through the door. "Guess what? Gramps just signed the last of the representation-papers. Just a few more days of procedures and Sakura will officially live here! I'll be her guardian too from now." She said, puffing herself up in pride.

Both teens didn't react for a few moments, the suddenness of the news taking them completely by surprise. That didn't last long though, as Sakura started beaming with happiness and Shirou immediately walked up to his honorary big sister to throw his arms around her in a hug.

"That's amazing, Fuji-nee," he said, hugging her strongly as the woman squealed in surprise. "Thank you."

"Y-Yes, _'sniff'_ , thank you." Sakura agreed, wiping away the few tears that had escaped her eyes, before happily joining the hug as Shirou shifted to make room for her. "Thank you so much."

"Ack? E-Eh, i-it's no problem at all, I mean, of course I would have gramps take care of Sakura, why wouldn't I?" Taiga rambled, shocked by the sudden turn of events.

This time the teens didn't answer, instead choosing to tighten their hugs. After several moments though, Taiga seemed a bit done with it.

"Okay, okay, I get it," she hissed as she started trying to push them away, without much success. "You are grateful and everything, now let go of me so we can eat. Come on, let go. I'm hungry and there's food right there."

It took another few seconds of pushing and twisting, but Taiga eventually managed to free herself from her wards' grasp. She immediately walked to the table and began eating without saying another word, vigourously munching on whatever she could get her hands on while stewing in embarrassment.

Shirou shook his head slightly at the display, but any stern air he put on was offset by the large smile still on his face.

"Still, Fujimura-Sensei, thank you, truly." Sakura repeated as she took a seat at the table. Taiga didn't respond, save for a barely audible huff.

Mentally shrugging their shoulders, the teens too started at their dinner, ignoring the petulant tiger across from them for the moment and instead softly talking about giving old man Raiga some flowers as a thanks.

"Are you still going to your job tonight, Shirou?" Taiga asked after a few minutes of sulking. "At the Copenhagen I mean?"

"Yes." Shirou nodded. "I promised Neko I would be there, and they are already understaffed as it is. She told me it's hard for them to find reliable personnel apparently, sometimes her employees just don't show up. That makes it even more important for me to go, so they don't end up with no staff at all."

"Hah? Why don't they just fire them then? That's what gramps would do." Taiga huffed, leaning backwards with an exaggerated sigh. "But she always tells me it's more complicated than that."

"It's not really complicated, it's just that every new employee is exactly the same as the old one." Shirou explained ruefully, missing how Sakura seemed to perk up slightly beside him. "So I have to go, if only for Neko's sake."

"Ah, Senpai." Sakura whispered, straightening her clothes as Shirou turned to look at her. "I was wondering, uhm, now that I live here and not with Gr- Zouken anymore, I'll be having a lot of free time now that I no longer have to… well, you know."

"Yes?" Shirou asked kindly, prodding her to continue when she fell silent, not wanting her to fall back in bad memories.

"Maybe I can take a job as well?" Sakura proposed, wringing her hands nervously. "I mean, I have the time available, and I can contribute more to the household that way and-"

"Sakura, while I won't stop you from taking a job if that's what you want, you don't have to pay or work to live in our house." Shirou interrupted her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Again, that's not how I manage things around here."

"If we live together, we should share the burdens together." Sakura said softly but insistently, crossing her arms as a show she wouldn't back down. "I refuse to be a freeloader, Senpai, that is something I will never accept."

Shirou creased his brows, hoping his friend didn't suddenly feel overly responsible, before he sighed in resignation.

"I'll ask Neko if they have a spot open for a new employee," he promised, smiling as her face lit up in apparent glee. "I'm sure there will be a place for you."

Taiga scoffed. "Sounds to me like they can use all the help in the world. Besides, Sakura is much better than those idiots they call employees, so even if there's no room, they can just fire someone."

"Yes, that too."

"Thank you, Senpai. I'll work very hard and won't be a burden."

"Again, I don't believe you can ever be a burden, Sakura."

The plum-haired girl smiled tenderly at his words.

* * *

It was time, time for the inevitable confrontation between them. Enough time had passed, and there were no more excuses and no more distractions.

It had been two days since Rin had heard the news, and it had taken the better part of those two days to prepare, but she believed she was as ready as she'd ever be now.

Rin was currently putting on her shoes, her coat in arms reach, as she prepared to leave the Tohsaka Manor. Having just finished a training session with the fake priest in martial arts and general combat-abilities, her muscles were burning, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. She wouldn't let it impede her now.

Sa- Matou-san was now head of the Matou-family, and as per tradition, Rin, being the Second Owner of the lands, had to remind her of the rules that were in effect. To make it more complicated, the Matous and the Tohsakas had several long-standing agreements that would need to be revalidated, and for that, Sak- Matou needed to sign them.

Rin didn't have any illusions about Matou-san's willingness to do so though, and had thus spent a lot of time over the past two days creating and rehearsing speeches and arguments about why the other family-head should care about alliances and rules.

Now, to sneak away without the fake priest noticing…

In her haste to put on her coat, sunk in thought as she was, Rin accidently knocked over the coat rack. Despite it being thankfully empty it still created a lot of ruckus, which she just knew would signal to the fake priest she was leaving.

Indeed, barely two seconds later, Kirei's head poked out of the kitchen.

"Now Rin, what is this? While I understand teenage rebellions are a thing, don't you think wrecking your own coat racks is going a bit too far? And while I stand here washing your dishes too. I thought I had raised you better than that."

"It was your turn to wash the dishes today anyway." Rin fumed, instantly pissed off by seeing the man's smug face. "And if you must know, I'm going away on private business. Some long overdue stuff."

"On your way to kill the Emiya-boy then?"

Rin balked, eyes widening in shock as she took a step back. What was the fake priest on about this time?

"What?" She spluttered, outraged by the mere suggestion. "What are you talking about? Why would I kill Emiya-kun? I have no reason to do that, and neither do you by the way. Is this some new attempt to unbalance me?"

"Ah, but Rin, I thought you knew." Kirei said soothingly, which itself was already a large clue something was very wrong. Kirei did not ever speak 'soothingly' unless he was planning something nasty. "Especially since Sakura is living with him."

"What are you on about? And it's Matou-san to you."

"Well, the Emiya-boy is a teenager, and so is _Sakura-chan_. Furthermore, the boy lived alone, by himself, in a large estate, which he owns too. Not to mention that his family is dead, and his guardian spends very little time at his house, effectively leaving him to his own devices. Now that Sakura-chan lives there as well, there might be a possibility that something… unscrupulous is happening between them, don't you think?"

Rin gaped at the priest for a few seconds, somewhat aware that something in that little story was supposed to enrage her, yet with her mind still frantically trying to connect the dots, before it clicked, and she turned a furious red.

"NO!" She instantly denied. "No, no, no, they aren't doing… _that_. You can spin stories and mince words all you want, fake priest, but I'm not buying it."

Kirei merely raised an eyebrow, causing Rin to think deeply once again, before having to conclude that, yes, it was not only totally possible, but even likely, considering just how much Sakura seemed to value Emiya.

"Y-Y-You just focus on th-those dishes." Rin spluttered, voice high with her embarrassment. "I-I have to leave, right now! goodbye."

Not waiting for an answer - it would probably have contained no useful information anyway - Rin sprinted to the door and hastily pulled it open. She was going over to Emiya's house right now, and God forbid, if they were doing… _those_ kind of things, she would make her displeasure with Emiya known.

Before she was entirely out of the door however, almost standing on the porch of the church, something occurred to her, and she stopped dead where she stood.

Just in time, she realised that something was not quite right about all of this.

Her face shifted into a suspicious and inquisitive look as she turned around, facing Kirei again, whose head had not yet disappeared back into the kitchen.

"How do you know so much about Emiya-kun anyway?" She asked sharply, crossing her arms. "I wouldn't think there is a need for you to keep an eye on him, so why did you?"

"Oh my, Rin, you really are horribly uninformed." Kirei sighed despondently, shaking his head in disappointment as he emerged fully from the kitchen. "Then again, that is as much my shortcoming as a teacher as yours as a student, how terribly sad-"

"Shut up and tell me why you've been watching Emiya so much," Rin hissed, not in the mood at all to play his games. Why did he always have to make things so difficult? Was that a kink of his or something?

"Because the man who adopted him, his father, so to speak, was Emiya Kiritsugu." Kirei revealed blandly. "A man so skilled in the killing of Magi and other beings of the Moonlit World he was given the title of Magus Killer, in equal parts respect and fear. He was the most feared assassin in the world, even in the Mundane one."

"…W-Wait, what?" Rin whispered, a cold feeling settling in her stomach as her annoyance evaporated at the sudden reveal. "B-But-"

"And I had the dubious honour of fighting against him during the Fourth Holy Grail War." Kirei went on, telling her more about his past in that one sentence than he had in all those years before. "Naturally, it was my duty as a concerned citizen and a faithful representative of the Church to keep an eye on the son of this man."

"Y-You think Emiya was trained by him?" Rin asked, feeling all blood drain from her face. A Magus? Emiya was raised by a Magus? D-Did that mean that he…?

"Very likely." Kirei nodded sombrely. "Possibly, or quite probably even, to continue his work as the Magus Killer. For your information, I will add that Emiya Kiritsugu raided the Matou mansion and killed your uncle Kariya's younger brother. I hope you are at least capable of drawing your own conclusions from that, Rin?"

Rin couldn't answer, completely thrown by the information she had just been given.

Emiya was a Magus. If Kirei was to be believed, he'd been a Magus since before she ever laid eyes on him, before Sakura had befriended him even. He'd been a Magus all this time and had never told her.

Fury and disbelief coursed through her, as she realised just how badly she'd been played. There was no excuse for this, Emiya couldn't have any reason to hold this a secret from her. She was the Second Owner, she had a right to know about every Magus inhabiting her borders!

"He never told me," she eventually grounded out for Kirei's sake. "I had no idea."

"You are the representative of the Clocktower and he is the son of the most infamous assassin of Magi of modern times." Kirei pointed out with a half-smirk. "Can you really fault him for keeping this a secret from you, considering how you are acting now?"

"Urk?" Rin almost bit her tongue, realising just how inelegant she was behaving in front of the fake priest. Taking several deep breaths to calm down, she spoke again. "Well… under such circumstances, I suppose I cannot fault him."

"Hm, and what about Zouken? Do remember what I told you about him?" Kirei cocked his head to the side in a very lazy manner, giving off an air of immense trouble and smugness.

What he told her about Zouken…?

Ah yes, Emiya Kiritsugu and Matou Zouken couldn't stand each other, Emiya Shirou might have been tasked with finishing that feud…

Oh, no. No, no, no, no!

…Yes!

Emiya may have killed Zouken!

Rin didn't allow for yet another crack in her Magus-visage, keeping her face emotionless and stern, but inside, her mind was whirling. Emiya might have killed Zouken, and perhaps Shinji too. If what Kirei had told her was true, then that was even likely.

That would mean Sakura was innocent!

Any warm feelings that last thought might have generated however were crushed by the realisation that, even though she was perhaps less guilty than before, Sakura may very well have been used for the murder after all.

Emiya might have seduced her for all these years, with the purpose of using her to kill Zouken and Shinji! She might have been abused and misused. He might even be after the Matou-Crest, which was no doubt in Sakura's possession right now.

"I see you do understand." Kirei nodded approvingly, still looking utterly lazy and smug.

"Yes." Rin hissed. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go."

Without waiting for a reply, she stormed out of the church, unaware of Kirei's mocking laughter echoing through the night only seconds after she left.

* * *

Standing in front of the Emiya-estate, Rin took deep breaths to build up her courage, trying to convince herself to ring the doorbell before her nerves would get the better of her.

She had sprinted most of the way, but now that she was standing in front of the door, with most of her anger already cooled, she felt her earlier nervousness returning with a vengeance.

Emiya at least wasn't home, she had made sure of that before planning to go to his house. He was off to his job somewhere in town, at some café she couldn't be bothered to remember the name of.

Originally, she had picked a time when he was away so that he wouldn't hear of anything of the Moonlit World during Rin's discussions with Sakura. Now however, it was so that he couldn't influence or harm either of the girls when she would reveal she was onto him.

She was cautious of Wards and Bounded Fields too, but there was no reason for Emiya to want her dead yet. She was reasonably sure that, as long as he wasn't home and she was peacefully allowed inside, she should be able to enter safely.

Rin had first intended to come here to get Sakura to sign the papers for new alliances between the families, and perhaps, to get a bit closer to her fellow family-head, but those purposes were secondary at best right now.

It was most important that she got to the bottom of what had just been revealed to her.

The thought of Sakura being manipulated and seduced into helping an assassin kill her family filled her with dread and anger, but also with a bit of hope that it wasn't Sakura's fault at all, that she had been used, that she was merely a victim of the true villain.

On the other hand, it was difficult to believe that Emiya could have been so cold and monstrous. For as long as she'd known him, he had been helpful, kind, patient and always ready to assist someone. He had been just about the last person she would have expected to be a Magus.

It was of course possible that it had all been an elaborate ruse, a trick to fool her and seduce Sakura to use her for his plans, but that didn't make much sense either. Why would he put so much time and energy into a fake persona when far less would have done the same? It just didn't add up.

Not to mention that Rin herself had never suspected him of deceit. She might not be perfect at reading people, as was now firmly proven, but she liked to think she could tell who was obviously faking a personality.

And even if _she_ had been fooled, there were still Ayako and Ryuudou-san, both being very observant people who would have instantly noticed any slip-up on Emiya's part.

It didn't make any sense whatsoever that Emiya was a coldblooded assassin, but the only alternative was that Sakura was a murderer, and that was even less likely. So logically, that meant Emiya was in fact the killer.

He was the son of a Magus who had participated in the Fourth Holy Grail War, the very conflict that had killed her father and uncle, had driven her mother insane, and had left her with only Kirei.

It was unlikely in the extreme that Emiya hadn't been trained in Magecraft, and while she still didn't entirely believe everything she once thought to know about Emiya was a lie, it was a whole lot more likely that he was responsible for the death of Zouken than a girl focused on research.

At least, Rin assumed Sakura focused on research, she had never really given any sign of practicing Magecraft, but that was what a normal heir would do.

Shaking off that train of thought, she gritted her teeth, fists clenching until her knuckles turned white. She'd get the truth, one way or another, even if she had to beat it out of him-

Rin took another deep breath. No, she couldn't do that. She would get nowhere if she acted aggressively. She needed to handle this with a calm and steady hand. Sakura was firmly in Emiya's hold now, and if Rin wanted to get her out of that, she would need to be patient and understanding.

With one last breath, gathering all of her courage, Rin pressed the doorbell, the sound echoing through the house.

Several moments later, the door was opened by a brightly smiling Sakura.

Unlike what one would expect from a girl who had lost her grandfather and her brother in a fire less than a week ago, she looked happy, or not just happy, but positively _vibrant_.

She looked lovely too, wearing a purple apron with a cute cartoon bunny on the front, and a simple blouse-skirt combination underneath it. All in all, bar the apron, she didn't look all that different than normal, but it was her disposition that made her seem all the more beautiful.

Rin had to suppress the urge to immediately hug the other girl, for more reasons than one. She managed to control herself though, it would be incredibly inelegant after all, not to mention risky.

Sakura's smile and vibrancy disappeared immediately however once she realised who was standing in front of the door, her eyes widening in surprise and shock, before her expression turned cold, her eyes gaining a familiar dead look.

Rin felt a painful coil in her stomach at the sight.

"Tohsaka-san." Sakura's voice was ice-cold, uninterested, sounding as if she would rather be anywhere else. "What brings you here? If you are looking for Senpai, he's currently at work. Maybe you can try again tomorrow?"

"I am not here for Emiya-san." Rin said, burying the hurt feelings beneath her sense of duty. "I'm here for you actually. May I come in?"

"No." Sakura bluntly answered, already closing the door again.

"Eh?" Rin was completely caught off guard by the immediate dismissal. Was Sakura's dislike of her so strong that she would slam the door in her face? This called for draconic measures then. "I am here in my function as Second Owner of Fuyuki-City, to talk with the new head of a family living within my borders. I am here to remind you, the new head of the Matou, of the rules of the territory and to re-negotiate the agreements struck between our families."

Sak- no, Matou, looked at her for a few seconds, giving off a slightly puzzled air, before she seemed to catch on to what Rin was saying. "Oh right, that was also supposed to be one of your duties, I almost forgot about that. Well… come in then."

She opened the door fully again, and promptly turned around after speaking those words, not even checking if Rin was following. It could be taken as incredibly rude, and it was most likely meant that way, but Rin wisely kept her mouth shut about it.

She followed after her host, taking off her shoes before stepping into the hallway, and entered Emiya's living room for the first time ever a moment later.

She was directed to the couch, where she sat in silence while Sakura- no! Matou-san, _Matou-san!_ made tea. Milk tea, judging by the smell.

Rin used the time for some pondering, as Sak- Matou's surprisingly hostile behaviour had invalidated her entire plan. Eventually, she decided that a mix of direct and subtle questions would work best in this situation. At least, she hoped so.

"What do you want then?" Matou asked the moment she had handed Rin her tea and found a comfortable position for herself, opposite from Rin. "I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything illegal, nor did I declare any agreements between our families moot."

"The Matou-estate burned down several days ago." Rin began, observing Matou-san carefully for any reaction. No success though, her pokerface was almost as good as Rin's. "Did you hear about that?"

"Of course I did, I lived there." Saku- Matou-san scoffed. "Zouken burned it down in a fit of dementia, anger and delusion. Fortunately, Nii-san and I weren't home at the time, and we are safe."

Zouken, not grandfather?

"Do you really think the fire was lit by Zouken?"

"I can't think of anyone else who could have done it."

"The fire seemed to confine itself to one house only."

"I do not know much about the peculiarities of fire. From what I heard, the firemen weren't surprised or mystified by it, so I assumed everything was relatively normal about it."

It went on like this for a few more minutes, Rin asking questions about what happened, and Matou answering very shortly, not really providing any information at all.

"How do you feel about all of this?" Rin eventually asked, realising that asking about the fire itself would get her nowhere. "Are you alright?"

"Not just alright, Tohsaka-san." Matou huffed, before a smile came to her face, evil and innocent at once. "I'm glad."

Rin promptly took a sip of her tea to hide her reaction, the twitches in her face expertly hidden by the porcelain. Eventually, the only think that came out her mouth was a simple: "I see."

Meanwhile, her heart sank to the bottom of her chest. This all but confirmed Matou had been complicit in the murder, but… but perhaps it was only because of Emiya's manipulations. Yes, that made sense.

Grasping at the straws she saw, Rin continued her questioning. "Why are you staying here, at Emiya's place?"

"I needed somewhere to stay, and Senpai immediately offered his house. He is a very good friend, so of course I accepted. Where else could I have gone?"

' _You could have come to me.'_ Rin wanted to say, but she was more than aware such words would ring very hollow.

She quickly started taking sips from her tea again, lost on what to say next. She tried collecting her thoughts, but Sakura's piercing stare made it very difficult.

"What are you really doing here, Tohsaka-san?" Sak- Matou-san suddenly asked, yet again catching Rin off guard.

"I am here in my function as Second Owner-"

"Yes, I heard you the first time, but that doesn't require you to ask all these questions now, does it? If there is something else, please tell me, or else let me sign the paperwork and then get out of the house."

"I… I just wanted to see if you're okay," Rin admitted quietly, her eyes downcast.

Matou scoffed, yes, _scoffed_ , her expression one of complete and utter disbelief, as if she was hearing the greatest nonsense she had ever heard.

"Come on Tohsaka-san, if you're going to lie, at least make the lie believable." She huffed. "Again, what do you want? For real, not those attempts at directing the conversation elsewhere."

Rin had to violently push down a flinch at Sa- Mat- Sakura's harsh words, the girl's disbelief hurting more than any of the previous comments and actions.

Sakura… thought she was lying? No, she was convinced Rin was lying. She didn't believe for one moment that Rin might actually care.

Why?

"…You are the new head of the Matou-family, I have to talk with you to reaffirm the… alliance between our families and to remind you of the rules of the Magus Association."

Without waiting for a reply, Rin took some pieces of paper from her jacket and placed them on the table in front of the other girl.

"Please read these forms detailing the previous alliance between the Tohsaka and the Matou, so you can negotiate for possible new terms." She said in a formal tone.

Matou took the papers without acknowledging any of what Rin said.

The girl read through what was written, not commenting on any of it and taking her sweet time too. She lightly hummed at times and nodded on several occasions. It was unclear though if those gestures were real or just mockery.

Eventually, she put the paperwork down and slid it back to Rin.

"I know the rules, and I hereby declare that our families are allies still. Now, was that everything? If that's it, you can leave again. I would rather not have you here in all honesty." She said calmly, before pointing to the door. "Please, get out now."

Rin closed her eyes, the pain in her stomach intensifying. Sak- Matou apparently really didn't believe her when she said she came to see if she were okay. The girl seemed fully intent on being as rude as possible.

"Didn't you hear me? I told you to leave, and I don't see you getting up yet."

This time Rin couldn't stop the question that came from her mouth.

"…What is your problem with me?"

Matou blinked at the sudden inquiry, but her expression of cold disinterest didn't change, though there seemed to be a spark of anger in her eyes. "My problem? I wasn't aware I had one."

"You receive me here with nothing but cold expressions and rude words, when I express concern you laugh and throw it back into my face. For as long as we've known each other, you have been cold and distant, I do not-"

"For as long as we have known each other?" Matou interrupted, her tone harsh. "Funny, I seem to remember we got along pretty well when we were little, until I suddenly didn't exist anymore after I was handed off to the Matou like some piece of merchandise."

"I have no idea what you are talking about…"

"See! You're doing it again. You accuse me of being cold, but then you turn around and pretend you don't even know me!" Matou said with clear frustration. "So typical of Magi. Hypocritical until the very end."

"I wasn't supposed to talk to you, you know that…"

"Because daddy told you, didn't he? And of course little Rin does everything daddy told her, because Rin is a good girl who loves her daddy, even if all she ever was to him was a convenient pawn, one he would have traded off without a second thought should it have benefitted him."

"Wha-? What are you talking about?" Rin snapped, thrown for a loop by the sudden inclusion of thei- her father.

Why was today throwing so many curve balls at her?

"You might think he loved you and mom, but he never did, not for a second." Matou told her, a vicious, mocking smile coming to her face. "He didn't love me, and I have no doubt that he didn't care for you either. You were just his heir, his tool, nothing more."

Rin blinked in surprise, still befuddled by the sudden aggression. Her anger was quickly rising though, as Sakura kept making slanderous comments about her deceased father.

How dare she even insinuate such a thing? How dare she accuse her father, their father, of such heartlessness?

How dare she suggest that her father didn't love her?!

"You- You don't know what you're talking about." Rin hissed, gripping the edges of the table. "Father loved me-"

"As a good heir." Matou repeated offhandedly. "And nothing else. If you think Tokiomi considered you anything more than a little puppet and an heir to indoctrinate, you're deluding yourself. That man was not a loving person, and he would have gladly killed you if that had even the slightest chance at getting him closer to the Root. He could just have his broodmare pop out another heir right after."

Rin almost reared back in shock. What was this? Why was Matou suddenly making such venomous lies? How had the conversation gone so off track?

"He was a Magus." She protested, her anger rising even more at the continued slander. The girl simply didn't understand what was necessary for their Craft, and she didn't have the right to talk about murdering family-members anyway.

"Which only supports what I say." Matou countered instantly. "He was weak, and if not cruel and sadistic, then at the very least uncaring of anything but himself. He was an evil man through and through. Just remember this, Tohsaka; he didn't care for you in the slightest!"

Rin couldn't take it anymore, the plum-haired girl had gone too far.

"At least he didn't murder his own grandfather!" She blurted out, too angry to care about the repercussions of throwing that out. "At least he didn't kill any well-meaning family-members to gain more power or had their assassin-lover do it for them!"

This time, it was Matou who was caught off guard, looking utterly gobsmacked by Rin's outburst, before she frowned slightly, which was followed by a slight widening of her eyes as she realised just what Rin said…

"Pft, ha, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Then she started laughing, and laughing, and laughing some more, until she was in tears, holding her stomach as she almost doubled in physical pain. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Rin felt she should be insulted by that, but the sudden change in mood was too jarring for her to be able to muster the indignation.

"Y-You think I killed Zouken, for more power." Matou wheezed out between peals of laughter. "You think he was ' _well-meaning'_?"

"He trained you." Rin hissed, regaining her cool and feeling more and more ticked off by the mocking laughter. "He took you in, taught you about Magecraft, made you his heir even, and you repaid that by helping Emiya murder him."

"Do you even know what being the Matou-heir means, Tohsaka?" Matou asked sharply, her laughter stopping in an instant. "Do you know what Zouken did to me to make me his perfect successor even though I came from another family?"

"He-He gave you his Crest." Rin said with a frown, trying to remember if her father had ever written down anything about the Matou in particular. Now that she thought about it, it was quite strange actually that Sakura had been able to just receive that Crest without it killing her immediately. "He taught you the Matou-Craft I guess."

"Wrong." Matou huffed. "He threw me into a pit filled with Crest-Worms the moment I entered that house for the first time."

She said it so matter-of-factly that Rin didn't understand for a few seconds, before she managed to process just what Matou told her. Even after processing she couldn't understand Sakura's venom. Training involving a pit filled with worms was gross and unpleasant, but Magecraft is rarely pleasant. Still, the weight Sakura placed behind the words made her mouth go dry and filled her with a strong sense of foreboding.

"C-Crest-Worms." She croaked, gripping the edge of the table again, somehow she knew she wouldn't like the answer to her question."W-What do you mean Crest-Worms?"

"Exactly what I said. They are worm-familiar that make up the Matou-family-Crest." Matou said with a shrug. "Grandfather had a legion of them in the pit in the basement, they were his personal familiars. When I arrived at his house, he locked me in there for three days, while those worms forcefully entered my body through every opening available to them, and by openings they made for themselves."

Matou then suddenly reached out over the table, taking Rin's shoulders in a firm hold. Rin herself didn't resist, too stricken to even think of pushing her away now.

Matou's eyes were still blank, her face remained expressionless, yet behind that mask, a storm of emotions was visible.

Anger and hate were expected, and so were disgust and pain at reliving the memories of the Matou-estate.

Far more unexpected was the hurt in those eyes, the betrayal. Rin felt a stab of pain, of utter shame, at the sight, yet before she could think on that further, Matou continued.

"I screamed, I shouted, I begged for anyone to come and help me." She breathed out, her voice strangely calm, almost upbeat. "I didn't understand back then. I thought father and mother loved me, that _you_ loved me… but you gave me away, and never once looked back, and I just didn't understand."

Sakura shook her head, a sad smile coming to her face. "I held out hope, you know, that you hadn't abandoned me, that you would try to rescue me if you knew… but then I tried talking to you, and you pretended we were complete strangers, not even listening to a word I said."

Rin opened her mouth, and then closed it, struggling to find words, her face remaining expressionless. "A-At least he taught you Magecraft. T-To become a Magus, one has to walk with death…"

"He didn't teach me anything, Rin, not a single thing during those long years. Just the pit, day and night, again and again. It hurt, _so_ much, every time. He wanted to break me, to mould me into whatever kind of object he wanted me to be. That seemed to be my only purpose there. One day, he even told me outright that he didn't value me beyond my Magic Circuits. I contemplated killing myself then, you know."

Rin's mask broke, ever so shortly, as she flinched, her grip on the table becoming so tight it started hurting her fingers.

"I guess I was too cowardly to do so at first, and then I met Senpai." Sakura's sad smile now turned dreamy. "He was always so kind to me, so considerate. He didn't care about how weird I was, or how I would disappear at times without explanation. I simply couldn't kill myself then, not if I had him to return to."

Her expression turned slightly sheepish. "I realise it sounds creepy and obsessive, but he was the only reason I could still hold on. Everyone else was gone, or ignoring me, while Zouken did nothing but feed me to his worms, time and again, but Senpai was there for me, always."

Sakura rubbed her eyes then, and Rin realised with a shock that they were moist, as if Sakura had been seconds away from crying.

"And yes, he killed Zouken, but that was because that- that… that _worm_ was torturing me. Senpai saved me, and Nii-san too, by killing the monster and burning its liar."

Things started to make a horrifying amount of sense to Rin now, as she wondered just how she had missed all of this.

"My life was miserable, from the day I was cast out of a family I thought loved me until the day I was taken in by one that really loves me. Yeah, I'm rather angry at you right now, do forgive me. So please, Tohsaka-san, take your contracts and your accusations and go bother someone else."

"…"

Rin took in a deep breath, desperately trying to keep her emotions buried, to keep her mask intact. She couldn't allow herself to be compromised, not now, while she was sitting across from an almost-definitely hostile Magus.

It was so incredibly difficult though.

Her father, Tokiomi, had told her that Sakura was merely becoming heir to a different family, because that would be better for her, because that would keep her from becoming Rin's rival. He said she would be trained, just like Rin herself, that she would be happy with the Matou.

He had lied to her. He had _lied_ to her…

"I-I didn't know." She said, her voice distant, sounding unconvincing even to her own ears. "I had no idea."

"The colour of my hair changed; the colour of my eyes changed. I think that's a pretty clear indication that something was wrong." Sakura said offhandedly, not even sounding like she cared all that much anymore. "You didn't see anything because you were wilfully blind, Tohsaka, not because Zouken was so good at hiding stuff from you."

Rin's lips trembled ever so slightly, the mask she had worked so hard to perfect almost coming undone.

She… She had abandoned her little sister, turned her back on her, because she believed it to be best, while something like that had been going on, while such a thing had been happening right under her nose.

"I am sorry." She choked out, making Sakura's gaze turn to her in surprise. "I am so sorry, I didn't know. I swear I didn't, I-I…"

"Perhaps you didn't indeed." Sakura said icily. "But you never once cared to look either. At least not before coming here today, claiming you wanted to make sure I was 'okay' after years of not caring. In all honestly, I don't want you here, Tohsaka."

"W-What about o-our alliances?" Rin asked, loath to continue that part of the conversation but aware that she needed to handle that matter as soon as possible. She couldn't return later, she knew she wouldn't be able to.

"I don't have a clue what's in those papers, Tohsaka, none of it makes any sense to me." Sakura bit out, again proving just how little Zouken had taught her. "It hardly matters anyway, the Matou-family has ended. Nii-san is gone, I don't know a single thing about the family-Craft, and grandfather is dead and burned. The alliance between our families is the same as our personal relationship, _nothing_."

Rin breathed in deep yet again, feeling how her hands started shaking. "I understand, Matou-san. I-I won't bother you again."

"My name is not Matou-san. It's Sakura." Mat- _Sakura_ , hissed. "Now! Get! Out!"

Rin rose from her seat at once, making for the exit, too stricken to say anything in response.

Halfway down the hall however, she saw the front door suddenly open, familiar golden eyes meeting her gaze seconds after.

Emiya was home.

His sudden presence should have filled her with dread, as it meant that she had been caught in the territory of another Magus, and that she was at his mercy.

She didn't care much for that though. It seemed he had been completely right in killing Zouken, that he had done so for Sakura. She had no right to condemn him, not after what she had done herself.

"Tohsaka-san?" Emiya seemed surprised by her presence, though less than she would have expected. "What are you doing here so late at night? Do you need help with something?"

"N-No, I, ah, I came to talk with Mato- with Sakura." She answered him, hastily reaching for her shoes and coat. "I have said what I needed to say though, a-and I'll be leaving now."

Rin shrugged on her coat as fast as she could, but as she tried pulling on her shoes while still walking away, she tripped over her own feet, landing sprawled out on the ground.

"Tohsaka-san." Emiya said in concern, stepping towards her and helping her to her feet. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." Rin snapped at him, too distracted and distraught to even feel embarrassed. "I'm fine, j-just give me a second to…"

Finally succeeding at getting her shoes on her feet, Rin rushed outside as fast as she could, not even caring about looking elegant anymore. Before she could leave the house though, she felt Emiya's hand land on her shoulder, effectively stopping her cold.

She tried to keep walking, to shrug his hand off, but the firm grip holding her in place proved that Emiya's muscles weren't just for show.

"Please don't be too harsh on Sakura, Tohsaka-san." He said softly, making her freeze on the spot. "There was no other choice when it came to Zouken. And, don't take her too seriously. She is hurting right now, and she took it out on you in place of Tokiomi, but she isn't mad at you, nor does she hate you, not really. I'm sure it'll be alright soon, you will see."

Rin didn't acknowledge his words, she didn't care for what he thought was happening. Without answering, she shook him loose, this time succeeding as he relaxed his grip, and ran out of the house.

It had started raining outside, the drops falling as thunder sounded in the sky. Rin didn't have any rain clothes or an umbrella, but she didn't care. It didn't matter that she became soaked in seconds, it didn't matter that her hair clung to her face, and it didn't matter that some of the drops streamed over her cheeks and into her mouth.

It didn't matter that some of them tasted strangely salty.

None of it mattered.

* * *

Shirou watched the heir of the Tohsaka-family disappear into the rain, stumbling with her back hunched over. It was a sharp contrast with the proud gait she normally had, and it showed clear as day that something had upset her greatly just now.

As he saw her turn the corner, he sent out a command for the rain to cease, which it did seconds later. There was no sense in letting her get drenched, not when he could easily prevent it.

He sighed deeply, feeling nothing but sympathy for the poor girl. To be confronted with the truth so suddenly and harshly, it was no wonder that she was upset.

Yes, Shirou had little doubt about what had transpired here. The unshed tears in Tohsaka's eyes and the pain in Sakura's had clued him in well enough the moment he had entered the house. It had immediately set off his hero-instincts after all, and they were rarely wrong.

He couldn't help Tohsaka however, not now. She wouldn't let him, and forcing the matter would do more harm than good. Besides, she was a strong girl, and even though it wouldn't be pleasant, she would recover from this.

Sakura however, he could help. Even though her face was turned away and her body language was closed off, he would at least make an effort to talk to her.

He sat down at the table, and as subtlety had never been a strong point of his, he simply went for the direct approach.

"Are you okay?"

"…I am fine, Senpai." Sakura replied after several seconds of hesitation. "It was… well, just an argument with Tohsaka-san. She was saying things about alliances, and I was being mean because she reminded me of… stuff, and she got mad and I got mad and before we knew it, we were fighting."

"I could hear the yelling from down the road." Shirou smiled, trying to lighten the mood, but his smile fell away as Sakura shrunk in on herself.

He didn't speak another word, but reached out instead, taking her hand in his.

That didn't feel right however, not anymore, not after their heart-to-heart the morning after Zouken was killed. Just holding her hand wasn't sufficient any longer, for her or for him.

Following his instincts, Shirou rose from his place to do what felt right.

Sakura's eyes flitted upwards in worry that he was going to leave, but he did no such thing. Instead, he sat down, right behind her this time, and wrapped his arms around her torso, pulling her back against his chest, letting the back of her head rest against his shoulder.

He didn't know why he choose this specific way of holding her, it just felt correct for some reason.

Sakura sat frozen and stiff for a fraction of a second, before she relaxed in his hold, letting her head rest against him, letting out a deep sigh. A few seconds later, she started talking.

"Tohsaka-san knows that Zouken was murdered, killed by something else than the fire, and she came here to accuse me of it."

She then frowned slightly, before shaking her head.

"N-No, that isn't true. She started by asking me about the fire and how I felt about it, then we discussed the alliances between our families and the rules of the lands here, but after I… said some mean things about Tokiomi, she accused me of killing Zouken."

"You felt she was having it out for you." Shirou guessed after she had fallen silent.

"…Yes. She accused me of murdering an 'innocent' man, while not even bothering to collect evidence or try to understand the other side of the story. Just jumping to conclusions and obeying the rules set out for her by daddy like a good little obedient Magus-girl. It just… angered me."

"I am not the greatest fan of the Tohsaka-family myself at the moment." Shirou admitted, tightening his hold ever so slightly. "But I don't think we can blame Tohsaka-san for what happened. She did not give you to Zouken, nor did she throw you into that pit. She didn't talk to you because she was ordered to keep her distance, and while that was naïve and unthoughtful, it is understandable for a little girl to do what her parents told her to. Not to mention that I did in fact kill Zouken, so while she accused the wrong person, she wasn't that far off."

Realising he was rambling, Shirou cut himself off with a sigh. "What I mean to say is, she isn't a bad person, and she didn't mean to hurt you or cause you any harm."

"I suppose so." Sakura sighed, a glimpse of guilt appearing in her eyes. "I… I know Nee-san didn't have anything to do with me being given away, b-but… she…"

"She is the only one still around." Shirou nodded, as Sakura cast her gaze down in shame. "Tokiomi died years ago, your mother is… well, actually I don't know, but she's not around anymore either, and Zouken is already dead too. That leaves Rin as the only option for you to vent."

"Which isn't fair to her all." Sakura finished with a guilt-ridden voice.

"No, it certainly isn't." Shirou agreed. "But you both were at a disadvantage in that conversation, and you both came out of it unhappy, with very real grievances. It was bad for both of you."

"It was worse for Nee-san though." Sakura argued, drawing a curious look from Shirou. "I have you here to help me with my problems. Nee-san will return to a cold and empty house, without anyone to take care of her."

That was unfortunately very true. Tohsaka had no one waiting for her at home, her entire family was gone.

Shirou admired her resolve in living alone from such a young age, while even managing to become the school-idol and maintain her perfect grades while still studying Magecraft, but it couldn't be a very happy life.

It required a great amount of discipline and management skills at a very young age, and while that did speak positively of her tenacity and independence, as well as her ability to confidently deal with trouble, it was still a tragedy.

There was no denying however that she did drop the ball with Sakura. If Illya had been in _his_ reach like that, just walking down the street in plain sight and up for grabs, Shirou would have immediately taken her home, consequences be damned.

Also, he could probably assume now that she knew that he was a Magus, or if she hadn't figured that out yet, she would once she could think clearly again. His secret was out, but since there wasn't anything he could about it anyway, he didn't let it worry him overly much.

There might be trouble coming from it, but he would deal with that when it got here. It wasn't as if he could silence Tohsaka anyway.

They both sat in silence, both with their thoughts somewhere else, both with regrets that couldn't be addressed just yet, and both with their minds on the future.

After a few minutes, he let go of Sakura again. She didn't seem very willing to separate from him, but she did after a second or two.

"Thank you, Senpai, for everything." She said quietly as she sat up straight again. "Uhm, wasn't there something you wanted to talk about right now? You told me this morning you did."

"Ah, yes." Shirou nodded, though he felt uncertain he should burden her further with his own problems at the moment. "I'm not sure we should do that now however. It is late, and you just had a stressful conversation."

"I'll be fine." Sakura quickly assured him, brushing her hair out of her eyes and adopting a serious expression. "Y-You helped me, Senpai, s-so it's only right that I help you now in whatever way I can."

Shirou didn't respond for a few seconds, carefully studying the girl standing across from him. She looked completely serious about helping him out, and convincing her otherwise would probably take just as much time as telling her would.

"…Very well then." Shirou agreed eventually. "First of all, you have a job at the Copenhagen, you just need to stop by to discuss your schedule with Neko-san."

"Really." Sakura asked, looking mystified. "How did you get them to hire me so easily?"

"It was surprisingly simple." Shirou said, thinking back on the conversation he had with the daughter of the café-owner.

* * *

" _Hey Neko." Shirou called out as he walked up to her. "Aren't we a little short-staffed?"_

 _The question was a good one, as the café was busy, yet there were fewer waiters than there should have been. It was only Shirou's efforts and his 'unfair advantages' that allowed them to still deliver good service._

" _Yes, which is why I'm so grateful that you're here." Neko said bluntly. "Two guys that were supposed to come in today never showed up, with not even a phone call to notify me. They'll probably have some kind of excuse next time I see them, but I'm pretty much done. This is the fifth time."_

" _The fifth time already?" Shirou asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are they new?"_

" _Yes, but if it's up to me, they'll be gone soon. Just like all those others. If this keeps up, I'll have to ask father to hire professional help."_

" _Why don't you do that yet?"_

" _Because it's incredibly expensive. Those people ask what they think we can just afford and then a bit more, which is why we hire students and high schoolers. That worked for a while, but things are really getting out of hand now."_

" _Well, if you're looking for new people, I have a friend who is looking for a job."_

 _Neko turned her head to him so fast her neck audibly cracked, eliciting a wince from Shirou. "What friend? Why are they looking for a job?"_

" _Her name is Sakura. Have you heard about that fire recently?" Neko nodded her head, prompting Shirou to go on. "That was her house. Her grandfather, who was also her guardian, died in the fire, so she lives with me now. She wanted to contribute to the household, so she asked if I could ask you if you have a place for her here."_

" _Does she work hard? Is she like you?" Neko asked sharply, her eyes boring into his._

" _She works as hard as I do. She always helps me around the house, and I'd say her cooking is as good as mine."_

" _She's hired."_

" _Eh? Just like that?"_

" _Yes. Tell her to visit soon so that we can work out a schedule for her."_

* * *

"And that was basically it." Shirou finished his story.

"Thank you, Senpai." Sakura smiled, having a small blush on her face. "Those were really kind things to say about me."

"You're welcome." Shirou nodded, before moving on to the next topic. "Now, what I also wanted to talk about was what I'm going to do in the near future, or rather, what my alter ego is going to do."

"Your alter ego? You mean Rakurai, the vigilante hero?"

"Hardly a hero." Shirou sighed. "But, yes, that is what I meant. I think I have been out of action for long enough now, and I need to get back to what I was originally doing, fighting crime, before I got distracted by the Magi and everything."

"I see." Sakura hummed, her eyes sparkling slightly, though her voice did not reflect that. "W-Why would you need my opinion though? Are you not the best person to decide what Rakurai is going to do?"

"Perhaps, but I would appreciate your input all the same."

Sakura beamed at his answer and eagerly nodded her acquiescence, so Shirou brought out several of the files he had been putting together over the last few nights.

"There are several cities within my flying range that have significantly higher crime-rates than normal." He began, showing her some of the files. "Examples include Matsue, Hemiji and Kobe, with murder, kidnap and theft statistics that are far above average."

"So you can start with those then." Sakura nodded, cocking her head to the side, probably wondering why he was even asking her about it. The easy set of her shoulders though, without the tension she so often wore when she was confronted with his crime fighting, made him glad he had included her.

"Perhaps, but I actually also had my eye on these cities." Shirou said, showing her a few other files. "Kanazana for instance has had several strange murder sprees over the past years, without the perpetrator ever being caught. The way those people are murdered is the same every time, so it's likely that it either is the same person, or people related to each other in some way."

"Have there been recent murders?"

"No, it's been quiet there for the past two years, so Kanazana is more a city to keep an eye on than to visit right away. Nagoya on the other hand has had several disappearances over the past months, of people that definitely aren't the usual victims of such a crime. Doctors, solicitors, even a council member, very important people who will definitely be missed. I encountered such a thing before, in Urayasu, where a Dead Apostle was hiding. I hope it isn't one of those creatures this time, but I'm not willing to rule out the possibility."

"That sounds very important." Sakura said, taking the file to look it over. "I think you should prioritise this one then."

"My thoughts exactly, though there is one other city that I should visit as soon as possible." Shirou said, putting the last of the files in front of a concerned-looking Sakura. "Sasebo, the popular tourist destination, has had several murders and many more brutal assaults over the past months, while before there was almost no violent crime in that city."

"You think someone, or something, came to Sasebo recently? Something that has been committing these crimes?"

"Yes. Since the attacks have actual survivors that are still fully human, I doubt that it is an Apostle, but I also don't think the perpetrator is human. I'll have to find out after I deal with the matter in Nagoya."

"When did you gather all of this information though?" Sakura asked. "I didn't think you had all that much free time."

"At night, after you had gone to bed." Shirou answered with a shrug. "I only sleep a few hours per night these days, I don't need any more. Another benefit of having Mjolnir."

"That sounds really convenient." Sakura smiled slightly, trying to stifle a yawn as all the talk about sleep reminded her of her own need for it. "Many Magi would probably commit murder to reduce their need for sleep so much."

"Most Magi would commit murder for far less than that." Shirou answered with a shake of his head, to which Sakura gave a sheepish nod. "Anyway, do you agree with the plan or do you see any obvious mistakes in it?"

"Can I read these files first before giving you my thoughts?" Sakura asked, drawing a nod from Shirou, at the condition she would do so tomorrow, after a good night's sleep. "Thanks, I promise I won't take too long. There are people to save after all."

"Indeed."

* * *

Shinji stepped out of the train, taking a last look at the first-class compartment where he had comfortably spent the journey. The seat had been more comfortable than he could ever have imagined, and came with breakfast and as many fancy drinks as he wanted.

He could still scarcely comprehend the unbelievable luxuries that were out there for rich people willing to pay, not to mention the fact that he of all people could now afford those luxuries too. Emiya had given him a truly ridiculous sum of money when he had left, and while Shinji would never complain about that, he did wonder why the redhead had done so. He knew he had done nothing to warrant such an amount of money being given to him. They weren't such good friends, and Shinji certainly wouldn't have done the same for Emiya. He had no doubt the redhead knew that.

So why? Why had he been so incredibly generous? Certainly, it couldn't just be that bleeding heart of his? This went too far, even for Emiya. Not that it would be out of character for the redhead to do that for Sakura, or Mitsuzuri, or other friends of his, maybe even for a random person on the roads, he was just like that.

But to be so incredibly kind to Shinji? The one who had helped make Sakura's life a nightmare?

That made no sense at all, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what Emiya's game here was.

Shinji had been thinking it over since he had left Fuyuki-City, and he wasn't even a step closer to figuring it out. It simply didn't make any sense to him, no matter what angle he approached it from.

Even Emiya shouldn't be so quick to grant an enemy such an incredible favour. Even _he_ couldn't be that altruistic.

People just weren't like that, even the fucking best of them would feel anger, spite or something similar for someone like Shinji, so why didn't that golden-eyed bastard just throw him out on his ass?

Was he really just that kind and forgiving? Was it possible for people to actually be like that?

Shinji gritted his teeth in frustration. All of his core-beliefs were being upended here, and Emiya had just been smiling through it all, not bothered in the slightest by Shinji's words and actions, no matter how insulting or cruel.

The only time he had been truly angry with Shinji was on Sakura's behalf, because of course that was the only way to push Emiya's buttons.

Speaking of Sakura, Shinji could still scarcely believe what he had been told.

Sakura hadn't hated him. Even though he had been the most terrible brother in all of existence, even though he had done unspeakable things to her, she didn't hate him, but still just wanted to be his sister instead.

What utter madness was that!?

A full-on existential crisis was approaching fast for the boy. His every belief, every lesson his family's betrayal had taught him, everything about human nature he had once believed true, it was all being challenged, and he was self-aware enough to know that he might come out of it a changed man.

On one hand, Shinji welcomed that, as he was perfectly aware that his current character was shit, but on the other hand, he also greatly feared it, perhaps more than anything else. The fundamental change that the future now potentially held for him was not something Matou Shinji had ever anticipated, and he was struggling greatly with it. Unknown to him however, help was on its way.

As Shinji walked towards his hotel, a being slowly manifested itself in reality. It came from a higher dimension, yet by using its great experience with travelling between worlds, dimensions and realities, it arrived without even a whisper of wind on the pavement.

Upon its completion, it greedily took several deep breaths, grateful to be able to do so again. Then, it aimed its gaze towards the boy having an existential crisis down below on the streets.

The Matou reminded the being of itself when it was young. The resemblance was almost uncanny in fact - an inferiority-complex resulting in arrogance, a deep-rooted fear of betrayal, and a tendency to lash out at those who merely wanted to help.

Oh yes, the young Matou was almost a carbon copy of the being back in its youth.

The being had not come to the Nasuverse idly. It was dead, and technically not allowed to further influence the living world, no matter in what universe or realm. The fact that it had taken the trouble to cross was a clear indication that it meant business.

Which was only logical. It now had a priceless opportunity of killing two birds with one stone. Help a lost soul find himself again and help his dear brother's last project on its way.

The being sighed at it watched the last Matou.

It too had lashed out at the wrong people. It too had attacked innocents with reasons far less valid than it thought at the time. It too had seen no light in the never-ending darkness.

It now had an opportunity, however, to prevent someone else from sharing such a fate. Perhaps, if it succeeded, it could save Matou Shinji from becoming a broken man, hated by all.

Only time would tell.

* * *

Fukushima Taro sighed deeply as he swirled the sake in his glass, absently tuning out the blaring news broadcast as his mind wandered.

His city, Toyohashi, had finally returned to some semblance of calm after many weeks of fighting. As one of the leaders of the clashing sides, Taro welcomed the chance to finally sit on his ass and relax for a while.

He supposed he should be glad that it hadn't been open fucking war at least, but a rather badly hidden scuffle in the underworld. If they had dared to hold their little war in public view, he didn't doubt that the army would already have taken control over the city.

There had been no shooting on the streets, this was not the Wild-West after all, and both sides understood that much at least. All the fighting had been done in abandoned warehouses and the like, which had fortunately kept the civilian-casualties low. It could, frankly, have been much worse.

Taro felt a momentary flash of anger at the people, the insolent animals, that had dared invade his city. He had been in charge of the underworld of Toyohashi for over thirty years now, and he would be damned if he let some upstart brat take it all away from him.

Not to mention that he had a duty to protect the town too, from people far more unscrupulous than him. People like the upstart brat.

Taro prided himself on the honour that he, despite being a known and admitted criminal, could still manage to hold as Yakuza boss in spite of everything. The law-enforcement and the people of the city knew him and trusted him not to go too far, and he trusted them in return to look the other way most of the time.

Though of course, some financial incentive certainly helped with that last part.

It was a good way to run the underworld, and he knew of several other Yakuza-leaders, some his friends, other his rivals, that did the same. It almost always worked, as long as you didn't get too greedy or too arrogant.

But now some pup was on the rise, some wannabe big shot, not even belonging to a proper Yakuza-family, who thought he could just chase Taro out of his own city, to take away everything Taro had painstakingly built over thirty long years.

Not while he still drew breath, that was a certainty. If the brat wanted the town, he would have to pry it from Taro's cold, dead fingers.

He sighed yet again as he let his head fall backwards against the back of the sofa, the exhaustion of the past weeks finally catching up with him.

It had admittedly been far harder than expected to kick out the new brat's men, who had tried to enter Taro's territory in droves, guns and knives in their grubby, little hands, eager to claim his city for themselves. And when they had it, run it into the ground with their excesses and general foolishness. Taro sneered at the thought, his grip around the sake glass tightening. The scum his men had captured and interrogated had had no idea at all on how to run the underworld successfully. It was all vicious bravado and delusions of grandeur.

Like hell he was going to allow such people to take over his precious city!

Taro took a deep breath to calm himself, relaxing his hands as he took a small sip of his sake. There was no use in getting angry over it, he and his men had already won, it was fine now.

Most of the tension left his body at the thought, but not all of it. After all, he might have been victorious against the invading hordes, but that didn't mean everyone was.

The new brat had had some successes in a few cities along the coast and now thought he was the next big thing in Japan. There was no way that Toyohashi was to be his only target, more cities could come under attack soon.

The balance that had kept the underworld stable in this part of Japan had been broken, and vultures were now descending, looking for easy prey. Old alliances had fallen, and the rabble was preparing for war, all because of one man's, or maybe one group's, actions.

Rakurai the vigilante.

Taro sipped from his drink, shaking his head slightly as the name popped up in his brain.

He had no doubt the man had nothing but 'noble' intentions doing what he did, but there was no denying that his actions had sent the underworld into a frenzy that it would be hard-pressed to get out of.

The vigilante himself couldn't have visited more than two dozen cities in total, but where he came, he was brutal and effective, crippling the underworld and emboldening law-enforcement to act, thereby dealing the gangs a critical blow, if not a fatal one.

It had spread out to the rest of the country, and while in most places the peace remained, some gangs were now under the impression that law-enforcement had declared war on them, and that they had to fight back as hard as they could.

It wouldn't surprise Taro at all if bloody incidents would follow, foolish deeds that would do nothing but escalate the situation and anger the powers that be.

And naturally, it would be the entire underworld, Yakuza, other gangs, freelancers and what not, that would bear the consequences of the angered police, which would lead to desperation, and thus more escalation.

It was perhaps inevitable then that there would be people trying to profit from that chaos, the new brat, whose name Taro really should get around to finding out, being an example of that. Someone who had seen a ladder in the chaos that had been unleashed.

Taro doubted the attack on his city was the end of it, and it would perhaps be an excellent idea to warn his old friends and colleagues about the brat's ambitions.

Especially his brother in all but blood, Fujimura Raiga. Fuyuki was a very valuable city, with a harbour, many distribution centres and a police-force known for incompetence.

The only reason the city hadn't been taken over by the underworld was Raiga and his men, and the Brat had already shown he cared not for such things. Defenders or no, if he wanted a city, he would try to take it.

Taro was quite sure Fuyuki-City would soon be attacked if his estimations were correct.

Now, he wasn't saying that it was only Rakurai's fault that it had ended up like this. That was just human nature at its worst. It had been inevitable that something like this would happen sooner or later, and if Rakurai hadn't been the catalyst, something else would have taken on that role.

The vigilante had been nothing but cordial in his actions, never killing or maiming anyone, never taking anything with him from the crime-scenes and never attacking the police or innocent civilians. In many ways, he was the best opponent you could ask for, and Taro greatly respected him for it.

He still wanted to throttle the vigilante for the mess he had indirectly caused, but he did respect him.

Also, the… 'good' he had done far outweighed the bad, no one could possibly contend that it didn't. Only fools and people with agendas did that. Even the police had to admit that he was a great help, though they also had a point saying that vigilantism was against the law.

Not that Taro had any right to cast stones about breaking the law…

He was willing to admit that he might be a bit biased though. Rakurai had come down hard on the gangs and the rabble, but he had let the Yakuza relatively in peace, only interfering when their actions were excessively unscrupulous.

It was something he could get behind.

The absolute best thing Rakurai had done though, that what would make him a hero even if dozens of people would die as a result of his actions, was killing _Oni_.

That monster of a man had been a plague on both the normal world and the underworld for decades, having murdered, blackmailed and charmed his way to the top, before going utterly mad once he had reached it.

Oni had indulged in almost comical levels of evil, to the point where one would think he was just a badly-written fictional villain. Murder-sprees, abducting teenage girls, raping and ruining them before delivering their corpses to their families' homes, actively recruiting insane and psychopathic underlings that agreed completely with his actions and views, the man was horrible, an abomination.

To quote a famous film, he just wanted to watch the world burn.

Yet despite all that, despite his obvious insanity, his excesses, his countless foul deeds, people had still followed him. Many gangs and even several Yakuza leaders, damn their souls, had called him their boss, uncaring of what he did, or perhaps too afraid to call him out on it.

He had been a bogeyman for many people, known and feared by the law-enforcement, the underworld and everything in between.

And then Rakurai had put a definite end to it all.

Taro could remember the party he and his friends had thrown after they had gotten the news that Rakurai had taken out Oni, and had then systematically taken apart his gang.

Just how Rakurai had done all that Taro did not know, but it hardly mattered. All he knew was that Oni's time was over, and many people all over Japan could rest easier.

The Brat that had attacked Taro's city might have some aspirations and ambition, but it was clear that he would never become another Oni. It was unlikely that there would be anyone in his lifetime that could become like Oni.

Rakurai was a damn hero, even the police knew it, pretty much sweeping the whole matter under the rug, not even trying to leverage the death as ammunition against Rakurai.

The vigilante was not responsible for what criminals did in response to his actions, because simply said, he was in the right when catching them and they were in the wrong for retaliating, but again, even if he was in any way responsible, killing Oni had won him a life-time supply of karma, easily.

Taro rose from his seat to walk over to the window looking out over the city. It was night-time, and the city looked calm, peaceful and blissfully quiet. Barely any traffic, no pedestrians, save for a few drunken teenagers stumbling around, the shops were closed and the lights in many houses were already turned off as the owners went to sleep.

It was a beautiful city, and one Taro would defend with his life if he had to. He had taken on that responsibility, just like many of his old friends had with their cities.

He had defended Toyohashi, and soon, other cities would have to defend themselves.

He better get around to calling his buddies soon.

* * *

 **Done, I think. This took a very long time, but it is how it is I suppose. I have no excuse, and I do apologise, but real life was a priority these last months.**

 **Alright, just to say right now, for those of you expecting plenty of action, that's not going to happen. This chapter, as well as the few coming chapters, will mostly be dealing with the fall-out from the previous ones, as well as setting things up for the following ones and bringing some arcs and storylines to an end successfully.**

 **I'll do my best to keep it interesting, and Shirou won't be completely idle, but no more big life or death fights for now. Tremendous apologies.**

 **Also, Ayako still needs to be told about a lot of things, the girls need to confess to Shirou (which might be delayed because of the aforementioned telling about the Moonlit World, though I assure you there will no drama, just Ayako having her mind blown), and Shirou needs to figure out what he is going to do with his alter ego, because he cannot continue like this, that much should be clear to you all.**

 **Rin and Sakura are no longer on speaking terms. Sakura cannot stand the sight of Rin at the moment, but that is mainly because of the last that her last name is Tohsaka.**

 **Understand well, the incredible animosity of Sakura in this chapter is against Tokiomi and those like him. Rin gets some blame for not checking up on her, but that is something Sakura can forgive. Please do not assume they are enemies for life, because they aren't even enemies now.**

 **Again, not on speaking terms, but neither one of them will attack the other or betray the other or do something to harm the other. That is out of the question for them both.**

 **And yes, Shirou's stint as a vigilante has some bad consequences that he'll have to deal with the coming chapters. Stay tuned for how that will end. Good thing though that he has a very experienced crime-boss living right next to him 'wink wink'.**

 **As always, special thanks to** **Crazylich79** **,** **Liamrodhudson110** **,** **Woggie** **and a new guest on the show,** **Manram** **, as well as various people on the Discord Server who contributed to the chapter.**

 **Ted collapses in relief, goodbye.**

 **NO!**

 **How could I forget?**

 **This fanfiction now officially has a tvtropes-page! Created by** **LukeSky001** **, it can now easily be found. Please, thank this hard worker for his tireless efforts.**

 **Of course, it is hardly complete, so feel free to make suggestions for tropes.**

 **Edit: This chapter was Edited later to improve its flow. Once more, much of my gratitude goes out to Crazylich79, Woggie, Manram, Tungstencat and Liamrodhudson110. It is thanks to them that the chapters are readable. **


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